Booths chief executive Chris Dee is leaving the business at the end of June and will not be replaced.

The upmarket Northern grocer will now be led by executive chairman, and former chief executive, Edwin Booth, who has decided not to replace Dee in “the short to medium term”.

Dee became Booths’ first ever chief executive in 2015, having worked his way up the business for 20 years after joining as a wine and spirits buyer in 1995. He was the first person outside of the Booth family to take up a senior management role.

He will exit the business on June 30. It is not known whether he has another role lined up.

Edwin Booth said: “Chris has been a friend as well as a colleague and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his hard work, dedication and commitment to Booths over the last 22 years and we wish him success in the future.”

Booths suffered in its last full-year after being hit by food price deflation and Storm Desmond, which caused catastrophic flooding.

The northern posted a pre-tax loss of £6.5m for the year ending March 26, compared with a £1m profit the prior year, due to one-off costs.

Sales slipped 0.7% to £276.6m, although Booths said that Strom Desmond “adversely affected sales by 1.4%”.