Peter Marks is set to retire from his role as chief executive of the Cooperative Group next year after 45 years working within the cooperative movement and six years at the Cooperative Group helm.

He will retire at the Group's AGM on 18 May 2013, aged 63, also stepping down as director from all of the group subsidiaries. The board will now begin an open process of recruitment for his successor.

Marks first joined the cooperative movement in 1967 as a management trainee in Yorkshire Cooperatives. The Yorkshireman took his place as chief executive of the Cooperative Group in 2007 after successfully steering the merger of the Cooperative Group and United Co-operatives, which he had previously led.

The Cooperative Group board praised Marks' achievements whilst announcing his imminent departure this morning:

"Peter has done a truly outstanding job for the Cooperative Group," said Len Wardle, chairman of the board. "He was the architect of the current strategy to ensure that we developed real scale in our businesses. Peter has led a strong management team which has ensured that those businesses are now stronger and better able to deliver for our millions of customers," he added.

In December last year Marks made headlines by forming a band and launching a charity single to raise funds for Mencap and its sister charity Enable. Sadly Angel Square, named after the group's headquarters, never made Christmas number one with its rendition of Take That's 'Greatest Day'.

The Cooperative Group is the UK's largest mutual retailer owned by over six million consumers. The group is focussed on its social and sustainability goal, outlined in an almost 50-point ethical plan launched last year. Its aims range from 'keeping communities thriving' to 'tackling global poverty'.