Tesco poaches John Lewis head of omnichannel Karen Dracou to bolster multichannel team

Dracou, who was at John Lewis for more than five years, has taken up the position of multichannel strategy director at Tesco.

The move comes as Tesco increasingly focuses on turning itself into a multichannel global leader. It hired former Amazon managing director and House of Fraser multichannel chief Robin Terrell earlier this year. Dracou will report into Terrell.

Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke said in an exclusive column for Retail Week earlier this year that Tesco is reshaping the organisation to become a “multichannel leader”.

Clarke wrote: “A lot of retailers claim it, but creating individually perfect shopping experiences, however a customer shops, is difficult to achieve. Becoming a multichannel leader is about more than just putting iPads in stores.

“It needs investment in new types of skills and not just in the IT department.

“From marketing, finance and operations through to commercial and corporate affairs, the skillsets required by retail leaders are changing. That means bringing in outstanding talent with these new skills to work alongside the best of Tesco.”

Before joining John Lewis, Dracou was at Marks & Spencer for more than 15 years in a variety of commercial roles.

Tesco confirmed the appointment.

John Lewis said Dracou is not being directly replaced, and her responsibilities have been absorbed by the team.