Office chief executive Lorenzo Moretti has stepped down with immediate effect and will be succeeded by the shoe retailer’s chief operating officer.

COO Kerry-Lee van der Merwe has been appointed as interim managing director. During her time as chief operating officer, she was responsible for a variety of business operations including finance, IT, HR and property.

Van der Merwe has spent the last 20 years working in the consumer and fashion industry and joined Office in 2016.

She was previously finance director of Johnson & Johnson South Africa and qualified as a chartered accountant at KPMG.

As part of a wider turnaround strategy from parent company Truworth, Office has been mulling the closure of around 15 underperforming stores over the next two years.

In the year to June 30, Office had an operating loss of £94.7m, despite sales jumping 1% to £279m driven predominantly by a 10% uptick in digital sales.