All change across the retail sector as John Dixon moves to Australia and there is a range of surprise exits at fashion retailers.

Kate Bostock has left Coast

Move of the month…

…is John Dixon’s decision to join Australian department store David Jones as chief executive, ending weeks of speculation over his next destination.

Dixon’s exit from the British retail scene has surprised many observers although his experience of working across food and general merchandise makes him a strong fit for a department store with a significant food offer. Dixon will join an esteemed list of Brits to have been lured Down Under including the likes of Archie Norman, Stuart Machin and Ian McLeod.

British retailers who can hit the ground running remain hugely desirable in Australia and the accumulation of international experience should make demand for Dixon’s services even greater should he return to the UK at some point in the future.

  • For a comprehensive list of retail moves in September, see the table on the right.

Surprise exit I…

…for Kate Bostock who has left fashion retailer Coast after two years as chief executive. Although it is well known that Bostock has been keen to pursue her own interests, not least her burgeoning children’s brand Angel & Rocket, the timing of her departure in the run-up to Christmas is slightly unusual.

She will, however, act as a consultant to the retailer and a mentor to new boss Andrew Skinner. In April, Coast appeared to be laying the groundwork for an eventual succession when Skinner was promoted to the role of managing director, assuming responsibility for day-to-day business activities from Bostock.

Surprise exit II…

…for Colin Henry who has quit Jaeger just two years into a five-year turnaround plan. Henry said that it was the right time to hand over the reins to continue the next phase of the turnaround plan, although the absence of a seamless transition to a new chief executive suggests that his exit is more sudden than his statement implies.

Henry’s departure means Jaeger has lost both its chairman and chief executive in the space of six months following Peter Williams’ decision to step down from his role in May.

Surprise exit III…

…for Natalie Massenet who has left her online fashion business Net-a-Porter in advance of its merger with Italian retailer Yoox Group.

Reports are citing a clash of personalities between Massenet, who was due to become executive chairperson of the combined business, and Yoox chief executive Federico Marchetti as the reason for her sudden exit – a theory fuelled by the fact that Massenet has not retained any shares in the new business.

Both Marchetti and Massenet founded their respective businesses 15 years ago and have built them into multi-million pound brands so perhaps we should not be surprised that two single-minded entrepreneurs have found it impossible to find a compromise whereby both parties feel they have control over the direction of the combined entity.

All change at

John Lewis, which has made a raft of high-profile promotions coupled with a significant departure in the past month.

Influential marketing director Craig Inglis has taken on the role of customer director, where he adds responsibility for the end-to-end customer experience to his marketing responsibilities; Mark Lewis is promoted from online director to retail director where he will oversee shops as well as online in a move that reflects the ongoing integration of John Lewis’s various channels; retail director Andrew Murphy has taken up the position of productivity director, a new brief in which his remit ranges from organisational structure to financial strategy; Dinos Rocos adds responsibility for omnichannel customer ordering, contact handling and health and safety to his operations director brief; and finally buying and brand director Paula Nickolds is charged with leading the development of the John Lewis proposition of the future including new store formats in her new role as commercial director.

Exiting John Lewis is head of IT and former Sainsbury’s executive Julian Burnett who joins House of Fraser this month as chief information officer.

Tony’s trends

Speculation continues to mount that Debenhams’s senior executives are set to be ousted in a boardroom coup with a number of City investors reported to be conspiring to depose chairman Nigel Northridge. Such a move, if successful, would likely set in motion a domino effect leading to the replacement of other key personnel including chief executive Michael Sharp.

Publicly listed companies are often under threat of such investor rebellions and business leaders such as Northridge and Sharp are seasoned enough to know that job security is something of an oxymoron at the top of a Plc. One possible response is to seek a position within a privately owned company where, in theory at least, senior people have more room to breathe and build a legacy without the pressure of delivering against City expectations month-in, month-out.

Despite its well-documented problems over recent years, Debenhams boasts a number of high calibre individuals and the retailer’s loss will be the jobs market’s gain should the anticipated coup prove successful.

The Anthony Gregg Partnership

Tony Gregg is chief executive of the Anthony Gregg Partnership. Founded in 2003 and located in Henley-in-Arden and London,The Anthony Gregg Partnership specialises in the consumer search market space.