laura ashley chief stepping down laura ashley is parting company with its chief executive ainum mohd-saaid.  the clothing and home furnishing retailer said ms mohd-saaid had resigned for personal reasons. her departure will come into effect on 1 february and follows the departure of co-chief executive rebecca navarednam on 1 january. ms mohd-saaid is to be replaced by lillian tan  presently a non-executive director of the company and head of a malaysian retailer.  in a statement issued on thursday  laura ashley thanked ms mohd-saaid for her services to the company. its shares were down 8.51% to 10.75p in late thursday morning trading on the london stock exchange.  since 2002  ms tan has been managing director and chief executive of metrojaya  one of the largest retail groups in malaysia. laura ashley  which is due to issue its next trading statement in the next few weeks  has in recent months been hit by reports of poor sales. in october last year  it announced the closure of one of its two welsh factories. in september  the company had said that its half-year clothing sales had been  below expectations . in recent times  it has put renewed focus on home furnishings rather than clothing  but last september it reported that interim six month losses had risen from £1m to £1.2m  while sales had fallen from £138m to £118m.  laura ashley  which floated on the london stock exchange for £200m ($376m) in 1995  is majority-owned by malaysia entrepreneur dr khoo kay peng. in 1996  its share price was more than 200p. it has long been reported that dr khoo intends to take the company private  but he has always denied this.  laura ashley is a bit of a shrivelled husk of a company   said retail analyst nick bubb of evolution securities.  it is all pretty odd with its malaysian owners seemingly just shuffling the deckchairs.  laura ashley was founded by its late namesake in kent in 1955  before moving to mid wales in 1961 where it still has its main uk factory.