New Look has appointed the executive assistant to chief executive Anders Kristiansen to the newly created role of UK managing director.

Danny Barrasso was promoted on Wednesday and took up the position with immediate effect, Retail Week can reveal.

It is understood that the creation of the UK managing director role is intended to bring New Look’s domestic operations in line with the structure in place in some of its overseas territories including China and Poland, which are overseen by country managing directors who report directly into Kristiansen.

Barrasso had been Kristiansen’s executive assistant since December. Before that he was head of multichannel digital marketing and innovation at New Look.

A New Look spokeswoman confirmed Barrasso’s appointment.

The appointment follows that of Mike Iddon who was unveiled as chief financial officer on Wednesday. Iddon joins from Tesco where he holds the role of group finance director for planning treasury and tax.

New Look this week unveiled an EBITDA increase of 5.8% to £200.2m and an overall group sales increase of 3% to £1.53bn in the year to March 29.

Kristiansen said that he wanted to expand the UK store estate, which is currently at 576 stores. Although he plans to offload French business Mim, Kristiansen said international growth is New Look’s main focus. New Look has more than 1,100 stores in 24 markets.