Fired 1: LK Bennett axes ex-BHS boss

FORMER BHS boss Darren Topp has been forced out as chief executive of LK Bennett to be replaced by the head of a fashion chain which collapsed into administration this year.

Topp ( pictured) will leave the womenswear retailer, a favourite of the Duchess of Cambridge, next month after it decided it was ‘the right time for him to move on’. Topp joined LK Bennett in September 2016 after helming Sir Philip Green’s BHS, which left 11,000 people unemployed after it collapsed just months earlier. He will be replaced by erica Vilkauls, who was chief executive of womenswear chain east for just three months earlier this year, during which time it went bust for the second time in three years. LK Bennett’s latest accounts, for the year to July 30, 2016, show turnover slipped 1.4pc to £92.3m and profits dropped 2.2pc to £58.3m. Patrick Woodall, chairman, said: ‘ We agreed that now would be the right time for Darren to move on to new challenges that he had in mind.’