THE new team in charge of Beales say they can restore the historic department store chain to profit and tempt back its customers.

An annual general meeting heard that chief executive Michael Hitchcock had left the company “by mutual consent” following its takeover by investor Andrew Perloff for just £1.2million.

The meeting saw shareholders vote overwhelmingly to turn the business back into a private company.

Its new executive chairman is Stuart Lyons – who has been chief executive of Royal Doulton, chairman of bed manufacturer Airpsurng and a member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

He told the Daily Echo the company would be launching a Back To Beales campaign to convince people to return to the store, which has branches in Winchester, Bournemouth and Poole.

“Back to Beales means we’re going back to our customers and will tell our customers that Beales is the way they wanted it to be and they can come back to Beales with confidence,” he said.

He said sales figures were marginally up in the previous 24 weeks but some ranges had performed disappointingly.

“Concessions have performed relatively strongly but our own-bought departments have been poor, two per cent down despite a reasonably buoyant market,” he said.

The company was keen to introduce “more and stronger brands” and move away from cheaply acquired merchandise which was sold at a discount, he said.

The chain will also be bringing back electrical appliances after previously abandoning them, he said.

“Morale in the stores is extremely high and our staff are responding intelligently to our new strategy,” said Mr Lyons.

“I can see that Beales is a fine business, it’s a really excellent business with a great history, a loyal and committed staff and a strong, though potentially weakened, customer base.

“I’m absolutely confident we can restore it to profitability. It’s too early to say whether that will be achieved within the first 12 months or a little longer but the fact that this is a potentially profitable business, to my mind, is not in doubt.”

Andrew Perloff, the UKIP-supporting property businessman who bought the chain, told the Echo the company now had money in the bank and would have greater flexibility when it was no longer a public company.