Patrick Farrell, Daewoo Cars sales and marketing operations director, left the company on Friday under redundancy terms.

His leaving comes during a restructuring of Daewoos' retail operations which sees the company establishing a franchise network. The first franchise appointments are expected to be announced next month. Daewoo Cars managers will now report directly to their managing director SK Kim. The company said today it was close to appointing a head of dealer development to implement the new retail strategy.

A Daewoo statement said: "The sales and marketing department has recently changed in its structure to reflect the needs of supporting the network of franchised dealers that Daewoo is currently recruiting to operate in parallel with its own network."

Daewoo also acknowledged that Mr Farrell "took registrations to a record level in 2000, to a total of 32,544".