Shop Direct appoints group trading director
Very owner Shop Direct has appointed Guy Farmer as group trading director.
Due to join the business in September, he will report to Sam Perkins, Shop Direct’s managing director of retail.
Farmer currently works with Walgreens Boots Alliance where he is vice president and global retail own brand director. This means he is responsible for all Boots branded products worldwide. His previous roles include global director for Boots cosmetics brands. He has also held the positions of trading director for healthcare and lifestyle and for beauty.
Farmer previously spent 13 years at L’Oréal where his last position was managing director and country manager for Portugal.
At Shop Direct he will work with category directors and the director of global sourcing operations overseeing multifunctional teams. These will include the buying, merchandising, design, sourcing, data intelligence, finance and trading functions. Shop Direct began combining these functions into category teams last year.
In addition Shop Direct has consolidated its marketing activity under the position of a chief marketing officer. Having worked in the role on an interim basis since April, Carly O’Brien has now taken it on permanently. Most recently, she was marketing director at Virgin Money Digital Bank. Prior to that, she was head of customer acquisition marketing for current accounts at Royal Bank of Scotland, and head of marketing at Bank of America.
Perkins said: “Guy’s and Carly’s expertise will allow us to make big steps forward in our mission to give customers the best products and online journey, whilst helping them spread the cost.
“Guy’s outstanding trading and product experience means he’s ideally placed to cement our category management approach and even further improve the speed and quality of our commercial and customer decisions. Carly is already an integral part of the team and will use her marketing expertise to bring us closer to our customers through data and enable them to connect with our retail brands in new ways.”
