Mike Bowen has announced he will give up his role as chief executive of Mace Marketing Services at the end of the year. The move coincides with the closure of the Mace Marketing office in Gerrards Cross, Hertfordshire, which has been winding down for the past year. All Mace operations will be run from the offices of the wholesalers ­ P&H McLane in England and Wales and Aberness Foods in Scotland. Bowen, who has been at Mace for 27 years, five of them as chief executive, will continue to work from an office at his home in Hertfordshire. Bowen's contract with P&H and Aberness runs until January 2002, but he told The Grocer: "My day to day involvement with Mace will end in December." He said he would now be able to devote more time to his roles as chairman of the Association of Convenience Stores, chairman of the proof of age card provider CitizenCard, and director of the Institute of Grocery Distribution. He said: "After a lifetime working in the independent sector, it's a wrench to give up day to day contact with Mace retailers, many of whom have become personal friends over the years. "But P&H and Aberness have given me the support, the time and opportunity to enable me to give something back to the sector and I'm very excited about that." {{NEWS }}