Family-owned Notcutts Garden Centres have appointed former Hobbs and M&S executive Nicky Dulieu as non-executive chairman. Her first job will be to find a new CEO for the group.

Notcutts has been run by finance director Andrew Staff since July 2013, when Andy King left to join Dobbies as chief executive.

Caroline Notcutt, daughter of the company’s president Charles Notcutt, becomes vice-chairman.

Dulieu says the new CEO will be required to deliver the group’s ambitious development programme. Notcutts last big acquisition was Garden Pride at Ditchling, its 18th store,  towards the end of 2013.

Dulieu joined Notcutts as a non-executive director in October last year. She was chief executive at Hobbs and finance director at M&S Food. She also currently holds non-executive directorships at Adnams (where she was chief executive for almost six years) and communications company Huntsworth.

She declared a “passion for gardening:” and said she was a long-standing Notcutts customer.

Meanwhile, Notcutts have have reported recording breaking Christmas sales, which were 11.8 per cent up on 2013 in the five weeks to 3 January. Revenue was driven by the sales of artificial Christmas trees, which were 20 per cent up, with a £170 ‘Norway Spruce’ as the top seller. There were 61,000 visits to Santa, 6,000 up on the previous year.

Caroline Notcutt said trading over the Christmas period had built on a strong year for the business in which customers had responded well to improvements. “I am excited at the prospect of working with Nicky to further enhance the Notcutts brand and retail proposition,” she added.