The head of Somerfield's Kwik Save chain has become the latest executive to leave the struggling company.

Somerfield said Graham Maguire had agreed to step down immediately as managing director of the Kwik Save retail chain.

He role will be taken over by the group buying director Robin Whitbread.

Somerfield also gave a sales update which showed that sales had started to grow.

But the UK's fifth biggest supermarket group is still lagging behind its rivals.

Profits warning

Somerfield managed a rise in sales of 0.8% in the 28 weeks to 9 November.

But the biggest supermarket Tesco reported a 3.9% rise in the first half of its financial year and Sainsbury said its sales rose 2.4% in the second half of its financial year.

Last month Somerfield's chief executive Alan Smith resigned as the company warned that this year's profits would not meet expectations.

The finance director had quit a week earlier.

Squeezed out

Somerfield's problems began four years ago, after it bought Kwik Save.

Sales and profits fell and the group tried, but failed, to sell the chain.

It has also been squeezed out by the intense rivalry between the bigger supermarket chains.

Somerfield is now in the middle of a recovery programme which involves sprucing up stores and trying to reduce promotions to raise profit margins.

The company's shares closed down 4.25 pence at 64.5p.