N Brown chief executive Alan White has been appointed to the board of Direct Wines as a non-executive director.

White, who will retire as boss of the home shopping group in July to be replaced by Original Factory Shop boss Angela Spindler, joins the wine retailer with immediate effect.

White revealed in January he is to retire last July after 25 years with the business including the last 10 as chief executive.

Direct Wines, which owns the Laithwaite’s Wine, Averys and Virgin Wines brands, has operations in the US, Continental Europe, Asia and Australia as well as in the UK.

Co-chairman Tony Laithwaite said: “I am delighted to have someone of Alan’s experience and talent join our team as we continue with our vision to build the leading independent international wine merchant. His experience of migrating the N Brown brands and businesses from catalogue to online, together with providing first class service to its customers overlaps with some of our key priorities in the business”.

White added: “I am pleased to be given the opportunity to join Direct Wines at such an exciting time in the company’s development both in the UK and internationally.”

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