After 10 years in various roles at supermarket giant Tesco, Echo Lu was today officially revealed as Homebase’s new managing director.

Echo Lu, the new managing director of Homebase

As revealed by Retail Week yesterday, former Tesco executive Lu will take over from Paul Loft, who has been managing director at Homebase for almost 12 years.

Lu, who spent a decade with the grocer, is understood to have impressed the board at Homebase’s parent company, Home Retail Group, with her array of skills and experience across the retail sector.

Retail Week understands that Homebase chiefs were keen to appoint a woman to the role. The retailer has shifted from a DIY chain to a home enhancement store, and women now comprise a growing proportion of its customer base.

But her gender and the consequent ability to connect to the retailer’s new target consumer is far from the only attribute that convinced Home Retail Group’s decision-makers that Lu was the right person for the job.

Having graduated from Fudan University in her native China with a degree in international economy and finance, Lu moved to the US to study a Masters in industrial relations and human resources at West Virginia.

Her first permanent job came at US pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers-Squibb in 1997, where she spent seven years in a number of roles including human resources director for China.

Retail pedigree

In 2004 Lu was snapped up by Tesco, where she became human resources director for Asia. Three years later she was placed in charge of the supermarket giant’s commercial buying for grocery in the UK.

By 2010, Lu was named as Tesco’s new operations director in East China, before becoming chief operations officer for China the following year.

Lu was placed in charge of Tesco’s UK and Ireland property portfolio in 2012 and held the role of group business planning and insight director when she left the retailer last year.

Such wide experience and strong retail pedigree in areas including operations, human resources and buying would no doubt have been attractive to the Homebase board.

In particular, her familiarity in dealing with a large property portfolio will be seen as a huge positive for the retailer. Homebase is in the midst of right-sizing its estate and bosses have set an ambitious target of three years in which to achieve that key element of their strategy. Lu’s nous in that area will allow her to hit the ground running.

Home Retail Group chief executive John Walden this morning described Lu as “an agent for positive change,” but as well as overseeing such changes in store in terms of enhancing the Homebase proposition and improving operational standards, Lu could also play a key role behind the scenes.

Her understanding of various retail roles will make her accessible to many of the 18,000 employees across the business. She will be familiar with specific challenges faced by staff in different sectors – a trait that the Homebase board will feel can galvanise its workforce and create a stronger team ethic.  

In doing so, Lu will come head-to-head with another female boss in the shape of Veronique Laury, who has taken on the top job at B&Q owner Kingfisher. May the best woman win.