Family owned jewellery chain Beaverbrooks has promoted Daniel Brown to chief executive.

Brown, formerly operations director of the 64 store retailer, is a fourth generation member of the Beaverbrooks family.

He replaces third generation family member Mark Adlestone, who moves from managing director to chairman.

Brown has been at Beaverbrooks since 1995 and has worked across all departments including retail, buying and operations.

He said: “It’s only natural that I chose to follow in the family footsteps. From a very early age, when friends at school wanted to be astronauts, I used to tell them I wanted to be a jeweller. I knew I wanted to be involved.”

The new chief executive main focus will be to improve customer service at the jeweller. He said he wants to make Beaverbrooks “one of the country’s most compelling retail experiences for consumers”.

He said: “Buying jewellery can sometimes be quite an intimidating experience so we want to create a warmer, friendlier environment in stores to put our customers completely at ease. But that’s just the start - ultimately, we want to be doing something quite incredible. My aim is to completely astonish customers on a regular basis.”