INDEPENDENT funeral director Anderson Maguire says it is growing its market share under a new management structure.

Founder Dominic Maguire has stepped back from the day-to-day running of the business in recent months and taken up the chairman role.

Liam McCarron, who joined from a management role at Asda, is now managing director, assisted by Mr Maguire's son Mark as funeral director and Ryan Duffy as general manager.

Although he is still typically in for "a few hours a day", Mr Maguire said the new structure allowed him to be more flexible and that he no longer took management decisions.

Mr Maguire, 60, said the business in the past six months had seen a 22% increase in funeral numbers in "a declining market". He said: "There is another generation coming behind me in the business who are much more au fait with technologies and the use of things like Facebook and Twitter.

"We do sell a lot of our funeral plans now through the internet as the silver surfers are comfortable buying online.

"Liam knew nothing about funerals and that was deliberate. He knows a lot about management and sales and marketing and that was what we really wanted.

"My son Mark and Ryan Duffy both have large amounts of experience of the day-to-day running of funerals so there is a nice marriage of skills."

Mr Maguire believes the business, which operates from 11 sites across Glasgow and employs more than 30 people, has benefited from remaining independent and family owned.

He said: "I think people appreciate that."

Mr Maguire said the firm had no major investment plans at the moment after adding five sites in the past seven years. He added: "We have grown to where we want to be at this moment and perhaps in 18 months to two years the young management team might look at it again."