Woolworths boosts management team
Woolworths unveiled a trio of senior appointments today as part of moves by the retailer to bring “added strength and expertise” to its boardroom.
The group, which this week reported a 4.4% fall in like-for-like sales, said one of the posts was a new finance director, while it has also promoted two directors into newly-created executive positions.
Stephen East will fill the vacant role of finance director, following the departure of previous incumbent Christopher Rogers earlier this year. Mr East, who is 47, occupied the same role at property company MEPC.
Woolworths also boosted its boardroom numbers by appointing operations director Steve Lewis and its Entertainment UK managing director Lloyd Wigglesworth. The pair join chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones on the board.
Non-executive chairman Gerald Corbett described Mr East as “an experienced and well respected” finance director, who with Mr Lewis and Mr Wigglesworth would “bring added strength and expertise” to the board.
The appointment of a new finance director had been delayed amid the uncertainty caused by a takeover approach from private equity group Apax earlier this year. Apax later ended its interest.
The appointment of Mr Wigglesworth gives the head of the UK’s largest wholesale distributor of home entertainment products a presence on the Woolworths board.
Entertainment UK is a key division of the FTSE 250 Index company and accounts for around half of its profits.
Mr Wigglesworth was appointed managing director of the division in March last year, adding new accounts and retaining key customers, Woolies said. The 45-year-old was previously a main board director of WH Smith.
Mr Lewis, who is 41, has been operations director since 2001, following a spell in a similar role at electrical retail chain Dixons.
Woolies said he had been instrumental in improving standards and in-store disciplines throughout the company.
Earlier this week, Woolies said like-for-like sales had fallen 4.4% in the period since the end of January.
It blamed much of the drop on a poor release schedule for entertainment products and said it would respond to the downturn by shifting the focus at its 800 stores to higher profit areas, such as homeware, toys and clothing.
Woolies had been enjoying a revival under Mr Bish-Jones, with 2004 profits lifting by 5% to £73.1m (€108.8m).
