Dunelm has announced board changes including the hire of John Browett, former Monsoon Accessorize CEO.
As of 1 July, the homewares retailer will see Browett join the board as Chief Executive Designate and, following a six month induction period with current CEO Will Adderley, become CEO on 1 January 2016. Upon his latter appointment, Adderley will revert to his former position as Deputy Chairman.
Chairman Geoff Cooper, who is retiring from the board next month after nearly 11 years, said “the future requires fresh minds” and the appointment of Browett demonstrates that. Browett was a high flyer at Tesco in the early days of his career, having served as Strategy Director, CEO of Tesco.com and Group Operations Development Director.
In 2007 John he left to head up Dixons Retail for which he is largely credited as starting a turnaround at the PC World and Curry‘s chains. In 2012, Apple poached him as boss for its retail division but he was ousted within six months. It‘s understood that the tech giant‘s CEO Tim Cook disliked his focus on driving profit rather than customer service. Before long Browett was made CEO of fashion and accessories chain Monsoon Accessorize, he was there for two years and was rumoured the right man to take over Halfords when Matt Davies stepped down.
Commenting on his new position, Browett said:
“I am excited about joining Dunelm, a business with a strong track record and excellent growth potential. I look forward to working with its talented and experienced Board and management team to deliver its ambitious growth plans”.
Will Adderley, CEO, said:
“I am delighted that John and William have chosen to join Dunelm. We have laid out a clear medium term ambition to grow sales by 50% to £1.5 billion, and to develop the best multi-channel homewares business in the UK. The appointment of John as our next CEO is a major step towards realising this ambition.”
