Surprise as BAA retail chief quits

AIRPORTS operator BAA is casting around for a new group retail director after the present incumbent handed in his notice saying he has had enough of full-time work.

Brian Collie, who has just turned 50 and has two children at or just going to university, has quit the company saying he wants to go into semi-retirement.

The £443,000-a-year executive leaves with a pension pot of more than £1m, but will not be getting compensation payments to settle his outstanding contract.

His departure leaves a big job to fill. Retailing, especially at the big shopping malls at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, is BAA's single largest business, accounting for 45% of the group's annual turnover.

Collie's decision to quit has caught BAA on the hop, but he has promised to stay at the company until a replacement is appointed.

'This is a purely personal decision based upon my desire to pursue a different lifestyle, and I will not be seeking any full-time executive position in the airport or retail industry in the future,' said Collie, who will remain as a non-executive director of lastminute.com and the Jurys Doyle hotel group.