New Look has resumed its search for a new chief executive after ditching the process seven months ago.

The fashion retailer has been meeting with headhunters to discuss the position and will decide at the end of the month whether to engage a new headhunter.

New Look abandoned its search for a chief executive in February as uncertainty about its debts overshadowed the process.

But the company has since agreed a deal with lenders to extend the maturities on its £1.1bn of debt until April 2015.

The business has been without a chief executive since the departure of Carl McPhail in March 2011.

New Look, led by executive chairman Alistair McGeorge, is thought to have been trading well since its year end in March.  

Its board has seen significant changes in the past year. Chief operating officer Will Kernan left in December while creative director Barbara Horspool departed in February.

It is understood that former head of all of Marks & Spencer’s non-food business, Kate Bostock, who leaves M&S next month, is not in the frame for the New Look job despite meeting with the company last year.