Argos commercial director Robbie Feather has jumped ship to Fenwick, becoming its first-ever chief executive that doesn’t come from the department store’s founding family.
According to Retail Week, Feather will join Fenwick in January.
He has been with Sainsbury’s Argos since 2011, and once he moves on he will be replaced with Sainsbury’s commercial director James Brown.
At Fenwick, Feather will be responsible for the retailer’s development strategy, which is set to receive £55 million in investment support over the next three years.
The strategy comprises of £30 million for revamping its Newcastle flagship store and £25 million to improve its multichannel service, modernising its IT infrastructure and back-office systems.
Feather’s retail career began with Asda, where he was a category manager.
He was then the co-founder and managing director of furniture and mattress retailer Feather & Black, and then spent two years as buying director at John Lewis before moving on to Sainsbury’s.
At the latter, he started off in the general merchandise division and then was promoted to online director in 2014, and became Argos’ commercial director in the aftermath of Sainsbury’s £1.4 billion acquisition of Home Retail Group last year.
