Wilko has continued to strengthen its management team with the appointment of Alexei Cowan to the newly created role of Head of Design.
She will be tasked with establishing a dedicated product design capability for the value retailer to tap into latest trends and develop new lines.
Cowan has more than 20 years’ experience of developing, designing and launching new customer-focused products. Her last position was identifying trends for the WGSN lifestyle & interior team. Prior to that she was Group Creative Director for a lifestyle design group which included brands Perch & Parrow, Gallery Direct and Endon Lighting.
Her previous roles include Head of Design for the Home Retail Group, the former owner of Argos and Homebase, and Senior Designer for Next.
As Head of Design at Wilko, she will report into the retailer’s Executive Managing Director Andrew Moore. Commenting on the appointment, he said: “Putting great product at great prices at the centre of everything we do continues to be key to our strategic vision for growth and we’re committed to working harder and faster to deliver even more, desirable products, specifically for them.
“Alexei’s appointment will enable us to establish a stronger, more intuitive product focus through improving our customer offer based on insight and substantially reducing development lead times.”
Cowan added: “There is a lot of love out there for Wilko brand products and launching customer focused, innovative new products that simply help is my passion.”
She will officially join the business on 2 December.
Last week, Wilko announced that it had appointed the Chief Executive of Ireland’s Musgrave Group as a Non-Executive Director.
