Ideal Shopping has poached M&M Direct’s IT chief John Allen who becomes the TV shopping channel’s new IT director.

Allen had been at online retailer M&M Direct for two years and prior to this was head of IT at fashion etailer Asos.

Ideal Shopping finance director Ian Jebson said: “This is a great appointment for Ideal Shopping to have someone of John’s caliber joining our operations board to oversee the strategic direction of our systems development’ requirements in the next few years”.

Home shopping group Ideal sells via its TV channels and the internet. Its channels include Ideal World and Create and Craft.