Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, has accused the hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman, of being a "destroyer of companies" as he stepped into a fight between the investor and the struggling retailer JC Penney.

Mr Schultz, one of the US’s best-known businessmen, spoke out after Mr Ackman, a JC Penney board member, urged fellow directors to find a new chief executive quickly and released it to the media.

"I thought it was disgusting," Mr Schultz told the Financial Times, accusing Mr Ackman of bypassing established governance procedures. "When I saw what happened [on Thursday] . . . I'm distraught."

The JC Penney dispute has escalated into one of the most public and ill-tempered corporate spats in the US. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013)