Shop Direct, the owner of the Littlewoods and Very online shopping brands, has poached senior Boots executive Guy Farmer to take on the role of Group Trading Director.
He will join the business in September and report to Sam Perkins, Managing Director, Retail.
Farmer is currently VP and Global Retail Own Brand Director at Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), responsible for all Boots branded products worldwide. During eight years at WBA, he has led a 155-strong team and set up a global centre of excellence for the development of WBA’s own brand business. He has also held the roles of Global Director for Boots cosmetics brands, Trading Director for healthcare & lifestyle, and Trading Director for beauty.
Prior to joining WBA, he spent 13 years at L’Oréal and at Procter & Gamble in senior management positions.
At Shop Direct, Farmer will work with category directors and the director of the company’s global sourcing operation to oversee multifunctional teams including buying, merchandising, design, sourcing, data intelligence, finance and trading.
The group stated that the amalgamation of these previously separate functions into category teams represented a new approach to the end-to-end customer experience and supply chain. It began last year with the appointment of fashion, home, electrical and developing category directors and is said to be generating strong results.
Shop Direct’s retail team has also consolidated marketing activity under the position of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Carly O’Brien, who joined the business earlier this year and has been interim CMO since April, will now take over the role permanently. Shop Direct said her appointment as CMO shows its ambition “to use its rich data in new ways to create an even better customer experience”.
Sam Perkins, managing director, retail, at Shop Direct said: “Guy’s and Carly’s expertise will allow us to make big steps forward in our mission to give customers the best products and online journey, whilst helping them spread the cost.
“Guy’s outstanding trading and product experience means he’s ideally placed to cement our category management approach and even further improve the speed and quality of our commercial and customer decisions. Carly is already an integral part of the team and will use her marketing expertise to bring us closer to our customers through data and enable them to connect with our retail brands in new ways.”
