london feb 20 reuters british fashion retailer reiss named former next executive christos angelides as its new chief executive on monday in a move aimed at allowing founder and chairman david reiss to scale back his responsibilitiesreiss which is majority owned by private equity firm warburg pincus said the appointment was part of a planned succession process it ends speculation that angelides might join marks spencer to lead its struggling clothing divisionangelides who spent 28 years at next with 14 as group product director had a brief stint as president of abercrombie and fitch based in the united stateshe will start his new role at the end of march and will resign as a nonexecutive director of rival french connection on feb 28i am delighted that christos has agreed to lead reiss and look forward to working closely with him in order to ensure an orderly succession said david reiss who will remain chairman but give up the ceo rolelast month reiss reported total sales up 197 percent in the six weeks to jan 7 1 08026 pounds reporting by james davey editing by alexander smith