Dunelm digital director Joe Murray has left the homewares retailer after just 18 months in the role.

Dunelm said Murray left last month for personal reasons. His LinkedIn profile said he is “taking a planned break until autumn 2018”.

Prior to joining Dunelm, Murray was the co-founder and joint chief executive of Worldstores, an online retailer of home and garden products.

Dunelm subsidiary Globe Online bought Worldstores’ parent company, WS Group, which also owned Kiddicare and Achica, in 2016 in a pre-pack deal worth £8.5m.

A company spokesman said: “Joe made a strong contribution to Dunelm since the acquisition of Worldstores and played a key role in helping to integrate the business into the wider group, to help Dunelm further develop its multichannel offering.

”We have a good team in place to take on the remaining integration work going forward. We wish Joe all the best for the future.”