The boss of ASOS is leaving after 15 years

The founder of hugely popular online fashion retailer ASOS is stepping down after 15 years running the company.

Nick Robertson founded ASOS - which stands for "as seen on screen" - in 2000. The online fashion retailer stocks a wide variety of youth-focused fashion labels and is hugely popular with 20-somethings.

Robertson floated the company a year later on London's growth stock market AIM at 20p a share.

Shares closed yesterday at 3012.45p, valuing the business at £2.4 billion.

ASOS announced on Wednesday that Robertson is stepping down as CEO and will take a role as non-executive director. No reason was given in the statement for the switch.

COO Nick Beighton, who has been with the company since 2009, will take over as CEO.

Chairman Brian McBride says in this morning's statement: "On behalf of everyone who works at ASOS, I'd like to acknowledge Nick Robertson's extraordinary achievement. His passion and vision have built a start-up into a world class company. We are all delighted that Nick will continue to contribute to the Company that he started.

"We are fortunate to have such an able successor for the CEO role in Nick Beighton. Nick has unique experience of the Company built over six years, equipping him to drive ASOS along its growth trajectory to become the world's leading online fashion retailer for 20-somethings."

Robertson still owns 8.4% of ASOS shares, according to the Independent.

Last year ASOS' revenue rose 27% to £975 million, but pre-tax profit shrunk 14% to £46.9 million after the company was hit by a fire at one of its factories and struggled with the pricing of goods across different geographies.