B&M‘s Chief Operating Officer Karen Hubbard will succeed Richard Hayes as Chief Executive of Card Factory.
Hubbard will join the greetings card retailer on 22 February, citing that the new position is “too good an opportunity to ignore”.
After eight years as CEO, Hayes will retire from the position.
Chairman Geoff Cooper credited Hayes, who took up the Managing Director and CEO roles in 2008, as leading the business with tremendous success.
“Since he joined the senior management team in 2003 the Group has grown from a 40-store discount chain to a vertically integrated high margin value retailer with over 800 stores and two transactional websites.
Having led the business through an MBO, the 2014 IPO and its first two years as a listed company, it is fully understandable that he now wants to retire.”
Cooper said he was confident that Hubbard is the right person for the job.
After moving to the UK from Australia in 2008, Hubbard held a number of senior roles at Big Four grocer Asda including Executive Director of Property, Format Development & Multi-Channel from 2009 to 2014. Prior to this Hubbard served at BP for 14 years in retail operations roles.
“Karen has a huge amount of relevant experience in value retailing, both through store estates and multi-channel. She clearly has a great deal of energy, and ambition for the business,” said Cooper.
“There is significant growth still to come from Card Factory, and the board is confident that she is the right person to take on the mantle from Richard to deliver it.”
