Kingfisher has poached Michael Loeve, a senior executive of Danish retailer Coop Danmark, to be B&Q’s new chief executive.
Loeve has been named as the replacement for Kevin O’Byrne, who left the retailer last month. He is currently group retail director at Coop Danmark and will join B&Q in September.
O’Byrne exited the DIY retailer after seven years at parent company Kingfisher and 18 months as B&Q chief executive, amid a reshuffle under new Kingfisher boss Véronique Laury.
Loeve has 12 years’ experience in retail roles including positions across retail operations, supply chain, IT and strategy.
B&Q has hired him for his “strong track record of leading business transformation”.
One Kingfisher
At present Loeve is responsible for five retail formats at Coop Danmark including Irma, Kvickly and Fakta, where he was tasked with “running the business in a more unified way across multiple formats”.
Laury said: “We are moving at pace with our ‘One Kingfisher’ plan to create a single, unified company where customer needs come first.”
In March Laury reorganised the group by format as part of her One Kingfisher vision. She split it into big box, medium box and omnichannel and appointed three operations directors to oversee the units.
Loeve will report to big box operations director Guy Colleau.
Loeve was previously managing director of SuperBrugsen, part of Coop Danmark and one of the largest retail chains in the country with 250 stores. Coop Danmark has around 1,200 stores in Denmark.
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