Kiddicare inks ITV sponsorship deal as it poaches Tesco director

Fisher joins the Morrisons-owned retailer from Tesco, where he was category director for central Europe for a number of non-food categories in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey.

He had previously held the position of head of merchandising at Kiddicare’s arch-rival Mothercare following roles at Blacks, Asda and Clarks. He joined Tesco, where he began his career in 1995 as a management trainee, in 2011.

The move comes as the etailer inked its first major sponsorship deal with ITV2 sitcom Up All Night which centres on first time parents coping with a newborn baby.  

The baby specialist, acquired by Morrisons in February 2011, has created idents featuring a cast of babies ‘chatting’ to each other in their highchairs.

The first episode of the US series airs on Monday at 9.30pm and Kiddicare will be hosting Twitter chats with specialist sleep consultant Dawn Kelly simultaneously. Maternity lifecoach Jessica Chivers will host a Twitter chat on February 4.

Kiddicare chief marketing officer Alison Lancaster said: “Up All Night really resonates with any parents adjusting to the work-life-baby juggle. It’s fantastic to be sponsoring a series that’s not only laugh-out-loud funny, but one that captures the sheer relentlessness of parenting.”

The retailer has embarked on an expansion programme which has seen it open three of the ten former Best Buy stores, purchased last January, in Nottingham, Merry Hill and Lakeside.

Kiddicare is targeting a rapid rise in turnover to £200m by 2016 from £50m last year.

Kiddicare chairman Richard Pennycook told Retail Week last week that the etailer is performing strongly and is at a crucial point in its year. He said: “Kiddicare sales overall were way up on the previous year and we obviously opened the first of a number of stores this year. Christmas is not the peak time of activity for Kiddicare, January is and sales are going very well.”