Marshall Motor Holdings’ non-executive director Sarah Dickens has notified the AM100 retail group of her intention to step-down from its board.

Dickins joined the business as a non-executive director in 2015 and has since served as the chair of its remuneration committee.

Commenting on her decision to stand-down, which was communicated a statement issued by the London Stock Exchange today (March 20), she said: "It has been a privilege to be involved in the growth and development of MMH over the past four years and I am pleased that it remains very well positioned for its next phase of strategic growth.

“From a personal perspective, I feel the time is now right for me to focus on my full-time executive career and I would like to thank my fellow board members and the management team for their support over the past four years. I wish everyone at MMH well for the future.”

Dickens has over 30 years’ HR experience across retail, utilities, financial services and leisure sectors and spent 16 years at Asda Walmart, five of those years as an operating board member responsible for people operations and customer service.

In November 2015 she joined Bourne Leisure as its group people director.

Marshall’s board has commenced a process to find a successor and Sarah will remain with the Company to help ensure a smooth transition whilst an appointment is made.

To facilitate this transition, Sarah will offer herself for re-appointment at the company's forthcoming annual general meeting on May 21, the statement said.

Professor Richard Parry-Jones CBE, Marshall Motor Holdings’ chairman, said: "On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Sarah for her contribution to the company over the past four years. 

“We understand Sarah's reasons for stepping down at this time and we wish her well for the future.”

Last week Marshall chief executive Daksh Gupta said that the group is well-placed to make “another Ridgeway-style acquisition” as he highlighted a strong balance sheet amid 2018 financial results which revealed a 2% decline in turnover.

Gupta described the AM100 group’s results for the year ending December 31, 2018, as “fantastic” as he commented on accounts which showed a rise in underlying pre-tax profit of 1.2%, to £25.7m, against a turnover of £2.19bn (2017: £2.23bn).

Marshall declared a full-year dividend of 8.54p per share, up 33% on-year, in its annual results.

Gupta said: “The results are great news for us and our investors and are all the more impressive when you consider that they have come on the back of four record years since our IPO.”