Shop Direct appoints new retail director and shuffles executive board

Online retailer Shop Direct, which owns Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, has appointed Sam Perkins as its new retail director, who aims to drive “increased customer-centricity”.

The group has also reshaped its executive board bringing together its retail and product teams, with Perkins leading the new group. As part of these changes, former group retail, technology and data director, Jon Rudoe, has stepped down from his role.

CEO Henry Birch said: “Reshaping our executive board in this way is a big and important change for Shop Direct and reflects how serious we are about building a truly customer-centric digital business in order to create a winning customer experience. Bringing together our product and retail teams will drive improved collaboration, which in turn will enable us to start to change the way we buy and sell products.

“I’m confident that Sam Perkins brings the strategic focus, commercial know-how and leadership skills to drive forward this important new function.”

In April, Shop Direct closed three major warehouses across Manchester, which impacted 1,177 permanent staff and 815 agency staff, after a review of its fulfilment sites at Shaw, Little Hulton and Raven, Manchester, concluded that limited accessibility, layout and loading restrictions, and a lack of space meant that the centres did not meet the group’s future operational ambitions.

At the time interim group CEO Derek Harding said: “This is a tough day for the business and we know how difficult this news will be to hear for our teams in Shaw, Little Hulton and Raven. However, these proposals are necessary for our future and to enable us to continue to grow and meet rising customer expectations.”