Bradford's best-known female entrepreneur Judith Donovan has sold the firm she founded nearly 20 years ago.

Mrs Donovan, chairman of direct marketing firm JDA, has sold the Thornbury-based business for an undisclosed sum to a team headed by her managing director Carl Hopkins.

He has teamed up with media director Mike Ashton and financial director Tony Viggers, who took over the reins of the firm yesterday.

Mrs Donovan, 49, who has an image as an outspoken, cigar-smoking businesswoman and is believed to be a multi-millionaire, will stay in touch with the firm until the end of the year.

In the last two years she has taken more of a back seat in the business and concentrated on her two-year presidency of Bradford Chamber of Commerce and her role as a Millennium Commissioner. She has also published a book called the DIY Guide to Direct Marketing.

She said: "It has been a fantastic rollercoaster ride for me since I started out on my own 18 years ago - one that I would not have changed for the world. In recent years, in addition to keeping my hand on the tiller at JDA, I have been developing parallel careers, firstly in public service and second as a guru - including speaking and publishing my book.

"When Carl came up with his proposal almost a year ago, it seemed the right time for me to move on to fresh challenges.

"I am delighted that he is leading the management buyout and I am positive that he and the new management team will take the agency from strength to strength."

JDA was started in 1982 and the first person Mrs Donovan recruited was her husband John.

It is now ranked as one of the UK's top 20 marketing companies with billings of £25 million and employing 55 people.

The firm handles 30 clients in mail order, financial services, retail, charity, business-to-business services and manufacturing.

Carl Hopkins, 35, said: "In the past Judith has been our lone striker, out there on her own bringing us great successes and business wins. Now it is the time to change the formation."

Funding for the management buy-out came from Leeds-based Yorkshire Fund Managers and the Lloyds TSB bank.