Ashley Croft has resigned as managing director of Stapleton's Tyre Services after more than 25 years with the company his father, Sydney, established in the 1950s.

He has been replaced by Mike England, formerly retail director.

Stapleton's, owned by the Japanese Itochu Corporation and which supplies 4.4m tyres a year to UK trade customers through more than 50 STS outlets, declines to give a reason for Croft's departure, but says the parting was “amicable”.

Originally based in Watford and Hitchin, Stapleton's is a £120m turnover business employing 750 staff in wholesale and retail locations across England and Scotland. Its acquisition of WS Tyremasters in February this year boosted its already dominant position as the UK's leading specialist distributor of car tyres.

“It is with genuine regret that I have accepted Ashley's resignation,” says Stapleton's chairman Richard Green.

“He has been a driving force in the company's development from regional tyre wholesaler into the country's largest trade distributor as well as being a significant retail operation in its own right.”