Womenswear retailer Alexon Group is looking to hire a head of ecommerce as it seeks to drive online growth, following the appointments of Kevin Keaney as commercial director and former Moss Bros chairman David Adams as non-executive director.
Keaney is heading up ecommerce in addition to marketing and retail operations until a new ecommerce head is appointed. Marketing director Fiona Wilson has resigned from the business.
Alexon chief executive Jane McNally said: “Ecommerce has always fallen under the marketing division but pulling it out as a separate end-to-end function will help drive development in that area.”
Alexon has separate websites for each of its Ann Harvey, Dash, Minuet, Kaliko, Eastex and Alexon chains and McNally said online growth remained a key tool in its turnaround strategy. Alexon recorded a pre-tax loss before exceptional items of £900,000 in the year to January 30.
Turnaround specialist Adams, who was also former House of Fraser deputy chief executive and most recently executive chairman of camera specialist Jessops, joined Alexon as non-executive director this week. McNally said he would be instrumental in determining the future shape of the group’s store portfolio. “His department store experience will help strengthen our concession by giving an insight from the other side,” she added.
Since securing £20.3m in a capital raising initiative in March, Alexon has exited 27 unsuitable leases, agreed deals to exit a further two and renegotiated rental terms with landlords on several other properties. The group now has 63 trading stores and 950 concessions.
McNally said the number of standalone stores would be “back to 100-plus” within five years and that the group would open “considerably more” concessions in this financial year than the 50 it had planned.
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