Mothercare is restructuring its top team, creating a chief customer officer role for the first time.

Mothercare jpg

Mothercare jpg

Mothercare has experienced mixed fortunes recently

The news came as it was revealed that global brand and marketing director Gary Kibble was leaving Mothercare for Sainsbury’s Argos as marketing director.

He will continue in his role until June, taking on additional responsibilities of chief customer officer while Mothercare searches for a permanent CCO.

The nursery specialist has also created a global product officer role, which Matt Stringer, previously UK managing director, will take on immediately.

Both chief customer officer and global product officer are executive-level roles.

In addition, Mothercare has recruited Kevin Rusling from Monsoon Accessorize as international managing director, Kirsty Homer joins from John Lewis Partnership as director of HR while Keith Basnett joins from Yodel as global supply chain and business transformation director.

Former group product director Karl Doyle is leaving the business as a consequence of the restructure.

Mothercare has experienced mixed fortunes of late. Over Christmas, like-for-likes edged up 1% but it reported a fall in its last half, with like-for-likes and profits dropping following “difficult” trading conditions at its last half.

The specialist retailer, which is in the midst of a turnaround, recorded a 15.7% decline in underlying pre-tax profit in the 28 weeks to October 8 to £5.9m. Like-for-likes fell 0.7% in the period.