Ocado has poached John Lewis’s head of buying for beauty and accessories to lead the new site as it continues its expansion plan.

Ocado has poached John Lewis’ head of buying for beauty and accessories as it continues its expansion plan

Amanda Scott has joined one of the online grocer’s subsidiary companies, Speciality Stores Ltd, after Ocado revealed an agreement with Marie Claire UK to open a beauty and wellbeing ecommerce operation.

The joint venture, which Ocado said will incur start-up costs between £2m and £3m, will see the etailer move into the beauty and wellbeing segment.

Ocado said the new arm would be a separate company headed up by Scott.

It will be based in the Marie Claire central London office and will operate under the Marie Claire brand.

Ocado revealed details of Scott’s appointment this morning as it reported its first ever full-year pre-tax profit since it was founded in 2000.

A statement from Ocado said: “We believe that the high quality of service delivered by our technology and logistics platform combined with the awareness and relevance of the Marie Claire brand will make this an attractive shopping destination for customers.”

Scott was placed in her new role by headhunters Barracuda.

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