The Experience Innovators

Tom Athron
Chief executive, Fortnum & Mason 

Fortnum & Mason boss Tom Athron has been putting his extensive multichannel experience to good use since taking the helm of one of Britain’s most prestigious retailers in late 2020. Last year Athron launched a five-year strategy, underpinned by a desire to reassert F&M’s strength in food and drink and also pursue digital transformation to build upon the retailer’s 300-year history.

In March this year, Athron transformed the London Piccadilly flagship’s third floor into an immersive food and drink studio, filled with culinary delights and a classroom/chef's kitchen that will be a hub for workshops, recipe testing and content creation.

Athron has swung the retailer back into the black – in a trading update for the 52 weeks to July 10, 2022, Fortnum & Mason reported profits of £6.1m for the period, up from a loss of £2.7m the previous year; turnover for the year soared 42% to £187m.

Athron promised a “large and ambitious agenda” for 2023 so expect to see more retail innovation imminently. 

Graham Bell
Chief executive, B&Q 

When the home improvement boom tailed off as the world emerged from their houses after lockdown, sales at DIY giant B&Q dropped 8.2% in 2022 to £3.84bn, according to its full-year report. However, chief executive Graham Bell is confident the slowdown will be short lived and is now addressing gaps in his store estate.

There are around 50 areas where Bell believes B&Q is underrepresented, presenting room for profitable expansion, and it is likely to come in a mix of formats.

In February Bell called time on concessions inside Asda stores and instead opted to focus on a new high street store format, which would bring the brand closer to city-based shoppers without cars. Seven of the convenience-style stores have opened around London, with two operating under the fascia B&Q Local. The stores offer 3,000 products, with more than 30,000 available for click and collect, alongside paint mixing, kitchen and bathroom design, in-store ordering, key cutting, and waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling.

Bell is also expanding its online range, partnering with paint brand Lick in July to sell via its diy.com site. Bell’s test-and-learn approach will soon reveal how scalable the concept is. 

Alessandra Bellini
Chief customer officer, Tesco 

With the cost-of-living crisis and spiralling prices dominating trading, Alessandra Bellini’s role has only gained in importance as part of Tesco boss Ken Murphy’s ongoing strategic changes at the grocery giant.

Having overseen the launch of Clubcard Prices in 2021, Bellini headed the transformation of Tesco’s membership programme into a single, easy-to-use app that customers can use both in store and online.

Bellini is having a huge influence on the future of the membership business, too. In March she announced major changes to cut the value of Clubcard points in the summer to only be worth twice, instead of three times, their value, and extended the period in which rewards can be redeemed to up to one year, rather than six months, so that shoppers can use their points at a higher value.

While some customers have criticised these changes on social media, it is clear Bellini is not afraid to take bold steps. Indeed, Murphy said that her “relentless focus” on value had “materially eroded” the price difference between Tesco and the discounters. 

Richard Bradbury
Executive chair, River Island 

A former River Island chief, Richard Bradbury, who retired 13 years ago, has returned to the fashion retailer this year amid a period of impressive recovery. Bradbury took the reins from Will Kernan in January, who left the business in a strong condition after three years in charge.

River Island reported operating profits of £73.5m in the year to end of December 2021, up from a loss of £36.2m the previous year. Revenues jumped 23.2% to £740m in the same period following major store investments and diversification into beauty and loungewear.

Now, Bradbury – who was the first person to run River Island from outside the founding Lewis family and who was at the fashion retailer for 20 years previously – will be looking to further growth.

Stores will be high on his agenda given the launch in August 2022 of the River Studios concept; a tech-driven store format featuring smart fitting rooms and AI-styling tools. In June this year, Bradbury oversaw the launch of the retailer’s new digital-meets-physical store at Manchester’s Trafford Centre featuring interactive fitting rooms and self-service tills. River Island has also been building out its concession portfolio with Nordstrom in the US and Hudson Bay in Canada.

While it is early days for Bradbury, his background and experience at the retailer means it should be in good hands. 

John Colley
Executive chair and chief executive, Majestic Wine  

John Colley’s Majestic Wine was in a good position to serve customers when the cost-of-living crisis started to bite and many consumers switched to nights in rather than going out. The retailer enjoyed a successful Christmas trading period with sales rising 21.1% over the eight weeks to December 26, 2022, compared with pre-Covid levels in 2019, winning record market share in the category.

This represented a new high point for Colley as the business stepped out of the shadow of former owner Naked Wines. Colley has been at the forefront of driving Majestic Wine forward by focusing on expanding its UK estate and improving CX. The retailer now has more than 200 stores, with a further five set to open by the end of this year. The most recent of these additions is a smaller convenience format in Harpenden, which opened in April, aimed at reaching walk-in customers.

Elsewhere, in May, Colley relaunched Majestic’s Lock It In subscription service to help customers with the cost-of-living crisis and in August partnered with Uber Eats to offer rapid wine delivery from 177 of its stores.

Roisin Currie
Chief executive,
Greggs 

Since taking over as chief executive of Greggs in May 2022, Roisin Currie has not only continued predecessor Roger Whiteside’s excellent work but put her own spin on driving the inexorable rise of the high street baker.

Under Currie’s leadership, the food-to-go giant has performed well, with total sales climbing 23% last year to top £1.5bn. The strategy to expand its presence across its formats and improve the customer experience, adding a record 186 shops (net 147) in 2022, continues with a targeted 150 openings in 2023 – which would take its estate to 2,478; while its cafe and clothing collaboration with Primark, extended in March with four new in-store cafes, increased its presence on the high street.

Currie has also been investing in supporting local communities. Its Outlet store portfolio – shops that act as a dedicated channel for Greggs to sell unsold goods from other stores – has been expanded in a bid to address household food insecurity.

Taking over from Whiteside was always going to be a challenge, but Currie – just a year into the job – has firmly established herself as Greggs’ new leader.  

James Daunt
Chief Executive, Waterstones

Having struggled through the pandemic with stores shuttered, James Daunt has revived Waterstones and capitalised on the opportunity to bring customers back to his bookshops.

The retailer posted a £42.1m profit after taxation in the financial year ending April 2022 – up from £2.9m in 2020/21 and £19.7m in 2019/20 – while annual sales increased to £399.8m from £230.9m in 2020/21 and £376m in 2019/20.

Daunt, awarded a CBE for services to publishing in the Queen’s June 2022 Birthday Honours, has prioritised investment in Waterstones’ store network. Thirteen new UK store locations were opened in 2022 and three more this year in Petersfield, Blackburn and Craigavon.

All Waterstones stores now host regular author guest appearances, have dedicated children’s departments complete with surprise visits from characters including the Gruffalo and promote artwork from local communities.

Daunt has also ensured stocking stores is not an issue via its partnership with supply chain software firm Blue Yonder, which involved introducing warehouse technology for the first time.

Lionel Desclée
Chief executive,
The Very Group 

Former Walmart executive Lionel Desclée has had a strong start in the top job at The Very Group since taking over from Henry Birch in September 2022.

Delivering strong Christmas trading results with retail sales up 2.2% in the seven weeks to December 23, 2022, on the previous year, Desclée and his team have moved quickly to deliver on price for customers. In February, it expanded its low-cost Everyday value range by 900 products following strong uptake.

Desclée has also been shaping his senior management team – promoting chief financial officer Ben Fletcher to the newly created role of chief finance and transformation officer in February – while exploring technological innovations to drive new trading opportunities.

In February Very became the latest retailer to explore using artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve product discovery on its website, while it plans to migrate most of its app and website to its new AI-powered Skyscape platform by 2024. The platform will help deliver customer experience changes quicker and faster.

Despite the cost-of-living crisis, Desclée has been able to deliver on trading all while leaning into tech solutions to future-proof the business. 

Liz Evans
Managing director,
George at Asda 

Liz Evans was personally recruited to head up George in January 2022 by the then relatively new owners of Asda, the Issa brothers.

Although taking over amid historically challenging trading conditions, Evans has been getting on with the job at hand and is looking to enhance the customer experience with more personalised ranges. George at Asda has been praised for its more inclusive marketing and in February launched a new kidswear range adapted for children with disabilities; and fashion and lifestyle product collaborations with streaming giant Netflix and influencer and broadcaster Tan France have been struck.

A “supermarket fashion first” was hailed in May when Evans launched its Exclusively at George range of 40 upmarket items at “accessible prices”.

Evans has also got under the hood of the business and in February overhauled its supplier base, reducing the number of suppliers it works with to help drive “significant growth”. With George the UK’s second largest fashion and general merchandise brand, Evans has been a key part of the brand’s resurgence after its sale from Walmart. 

Ben Francis
Founder and chief executive, Gymshark 

We are used to seeing only positive news from the start-up success story that is Gymshark, the sportswear brand started in 2012 by the then-19-year-old Ben Francis. However, profits have fallen for the first time – in its year ending in July 2022 update, it posted a 39% fall in profit before tax to £27.8m despite 21% sales growth to £484m. 

Yet, displaying true entrepreneurial instinct, Francis has “refused to be swayed by microeconomic conditions”, and instead is doubling down on investment. In October 2022, he opened Gymshark’s first flagship store on London’s Regent Street, which combines modern retail space with community events and tech features.

Francis has also been busy strengthening the team around him, poaching from Lacoste a new supply chain boss, Laurent Madelaine, in January, and tapping into the success of the brand’s social media presence by creating a new creative director role for David Laid, the bodybuilder who has become one of Gymshark’s top influencers.

Having taken back the reins in 2021 as chief executive, after four years away from the role, the 30-year-old’s ongoing impact on the wider business sector was highlighted when he was awarded an MBE in the 2023 New Year Honours list. 

Óscar García Maceiras
Chief executive,
Inditex 

Óscar García Maceiras may have described his first full year as Inditex chief executive as demanding, but he has managed to make it look relatively easy.

Inditex saw group profits surge in its latest quarter, with pre-tax profit margins rising from 14.7% to 19.8% and group EBITDA jumping 14% to €2.2bn (£1.89bn) for the three months to April 30, 2023 (2023/24).

García Maceiras has been strengthening the vision set out by chair Marta Ortega, which is focused on technology, with the retailer aiming to grow its online share to 30% by 2024 as well as ensure seamless experiences in store.

To this end, the boss has pressed ahead with an optimisation that shrank store numbers from 6,477 to 5,815 within the year, but has grown floor space by 13% as he seeks out larger and more integrated locations. In March, García Maceiras opened the first UK store for Inditex’s leisurewear brand Oysho, in London’s Westfield White City, to help capitalise on demand for affordable sportswear.

And García Maceiras is also making a play for second-hand fashion – in October, Zara launched a service to enable shoppers to donate or repair clothes in store or online.

Thierry Garnier
Chief executive, Kingfisher 

The home merchandise market enjoyed a lockdown DIY boom but the cost-of-living crisis has taken some of the shine off. However, with Kingfisher like-for-like sales 15.6% ahead of pre-pandemic levels for the 12 months ending January 31, 2023, Thierry Garnier can remain upbeat about trading and focused on innovating.

In February, B&Q unveiled its first two Local fascias, smaller footprint stores more focused on tapping into the growing convenience market. The stores came at the expense of the retailer ending its tie-up with Asda and, while they stock fewer products on the shelves, customers can click and collect from the full range and access services such as paint mixing.

Building the B&Q ecosystem online is now a priority. In March 2022 it launched an online marketplace with an ambition to grow its web range to more than one million products.

Garnier is also making strategic investments in Screwfix. In March, the assets of parts-and-repair service Connect Distribution Services were acquired out of administration for £3m, citing strong growth potential for the brand.

With these moves, Garnier has made it clear he is not going to wait for the cost-of-living crisis to ease to keep working to maintain Kingfisher’s title as Europe’s largest home improvement retailer.  

Tony Hoggett
Senior vice-president, worldwide grocery stores, Amazon 

Since Tony Hoggett’s appointment in January 2022, his remit heading its store division means the industry is looking to him for Amazon’s next move.

Hoggett, who worked at Tesco in senior roles for 30 years, joined Amazon to lead the teams responsible for Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, Amazon Style, Whole Foods Market and the firm’s ultrafast delivery services. However, not everything has gone to plan.

The retailer’s Amazon Fresh roll-out in the UK has stalled, while Amazon’s UK trial of its 4-star stores outside of the US lasted less than half a year before being ignominiously closed in March 2022. The recent raft of job cuts has also fallen heavily upon Amazon’s store division, as the tech giant shores up its heritage ecommerce and tech businesses in the face of a global economic downturn.

With his job role changed in March 2023 to senior vice president worldwide grocery stores, Hoggett has been innovating to turn things around while remaining nonplussed by the closures; speaking in August, he stressed Amazon is making “big, bold, long-term investments” in its estate.

This past year, he has introduced new shopping experiences such as Amazon Style, a virtual fitting room in-store service, and suburban format Amazon Go Store in the US, bringing Just Walk Out technology to two Whole Food Market stores. He is also rolling out the tech that will enable customers to pay with the palm of their hands, Amazon One, which will arrive in all 500-plus US Whole Foods stores, alongside Amazon Dash Cart, its online AI-driven scan-and-go smart shopping tool.

Peter Jelkeby
Chief executive and chief sustainability officer, Ikea UK and Ireland  

There has been plenty going on to keep Ikea boss Peter Jelkeby busy. This past year he has been overseeing a €1bn (£885m) investment to turn the Swedish furniture retailer’s London stores into distribution hubs, an acceleration of its mini Plan and Order store format to address gaps in its North West portfolio, the acquisition of software provider Made4Net in June to speed up customer orders, and a partnership with Tesco to turn select store car parks into click-and-collect sites.

But perhaps the most exciting item on the leader’s agenda is the first-of-its-kind Ikea Oxford Street store, set to open in the former iconic Topshop store next autumn. While Jelkeby is keeping the details close to his chest, the store will span three floors with a showroom, market hall and Swedish deli, and is expected to stock around 6,000 products with half available immediately and the rest through home delivery via its electric van fleet.

It follows Jelkeby’s announcement in April that Ikea was investing £4.5m in one of the biggest electric vehicle infrastructure projects for last-mile fleets in the UK.

With sales having jumped 13% to £2.2bn in the UK in the last full financial year (ending August 31, 2022), the next year will be even busier for Jelkeby. 

Peter Macnab
Chief executive,
AS Watson

The cost-of-living crisis has brought challenges for many retailers, but for Peter Macnab – at the helm of two brands known for value – it has provided a key opportunity to lean into Superdrug and Savers’ earned reputations.

Superdrug’s pre-tax profits increased for the 2022 financial year by 71.7% to £77.8m, while sales jumped 17% to over £1.3bn. Macnab has credited growth to evolving his ‘O+O’ (offline + online) strategy to provide more seamless experiences and greater accessibility for customers.

Recently this has included rolling out a personal diagnostic health service across its stores in June, introducing accessibility features on its website to be more inclusive for people with disabilities in July, appointing a new cost-of-living ambassador – TV presenter Chloe Carmichael – to help shoppers find deals and the November 2022 launch of its beauty marketplace.

Macnab is pressing ahead with a store-opening programme for Savers, with 50 more shops set to open across the UK by the end of 2023, while Macnab plans to take Superdrug’s store estate from 789 shops to 814 by the end of the year.

Paul Marchant
Chief executive,
Primark 

Primark boss Paul Marchant continues to pursue a successful strategy of innovation and transformation. The retailer posted a 13% increase in sales to £1.99bn for the 12 weeks to May 27, 2023, while like-for-like sales were up 7%.

Marchant’s decision to trial click and collect last November has proved savvy and in July he expanded the service to 32 stores, including London. Marchant now plans to invest £140m in UK high streets over the next two years with four new UK stores, four new Tasty by Greggs cafes this year and in doubling the size of its Westfield Stratford flagship. Partnerships are paramount, with its July Barbie collaboration – which generated “incredible” sales – a sign of things to come.

Marchant is leaning further into the sustainability agenda too. In April, he announced Primark’s first fully circular fashion range and in March scaled up its trial of free clothing repair workshops to run across Europe.

Marchant is also eyeing up global growth. He is increasingly focused on taking the Primark experience to America – a market in which storied UK names have tried and failed – having already opened 16 stores there at the end of 2022.

John Mewett
Chief executive,
Screwfix 

Under John Mewett’s watch, Screwfix is edging closer to becoming a £2.5bn revenue business – more than double its sales when he took the top job in 2018.

Mewett’s masterful store expansion programme has powered ahead with a record 87 stores opening in 2022, taking its total to 870, and bringing it closer to its 1,000-store target. That is a huge feat for a retailer that has only had a physical store presence since 2005.

Mewett’s work on the brand’s omnichannel approach has delivered consistent results too. Against strong comparatives, Screwfix sales rose 1.6% to £2.37bn in 2022, and the retailer now boasts 11 million active customers a year with over 7 million app visits per week.

In fact, Mewett has made such a success of digital that the catalogue Screwfix was once synonymous with has been phased out. His focus now is firmly on growing the retailer’s 60-minute rapid delivery service Sprint to support greater customer convenience. In May, it launched its first TV campaign for the service alongside its first ever social media influencer campaign.

Taku Morikawa
Chief executive,
Uniqlo Europe

Retail’s biggest winners are those investing in stores and Taku Morikawa is making great store CX his MO. The chief executive of Uniqlo Europe, who has held the role since late 2017, has spent the past year “elevating” the fashion retailer’s UK store network with expansion, tech-driven installations and unique formats.

In April, one year after the opening of its immersive Regent Street store, he oversaw the opening of Uniqlo's new Covent Garden store. This is a 15,000 sq ft space spanning three floors complete with a Japanese-style tearoom, florists, courtyard and an exclusive TfL-branded range. The opening marks the 17th store in Uniqlo’s UK estate with the investment contributing to the fashion giant’s growth.

Owner Fast Retailing posted a 21.9% increase in operating profit year on year to ¥330.6bn (£1.83bn) for the nine months to May 31, 2023, while profit before tax was up 2.8% to reach ¥359.3bn (£1.9bn). The group credited “record performance” to “strong results” for the Uniqlo brand in Europe in particular.

Michael Murray
Chief executive,
Frasers Group

When Michael Murray took over Frasers Group from his father-in-law Mike Ashley last year, his primary mandate was to take the business in an entirely new direction. And Murray’s direction is proving to be a success – for the 53 weeks ending in April 2023, Frasers posted a 96.9% jump in reported profit before tax to £660.7m while group revenue increased by 15.8% to £5.5bn.

The former head of elevation is confident about his prospects for the business; stating in July that “Amazon can’t do what Frasers can” and focusing his efforts on innovating the group’s stores.

In March, he opened Frasers’ new Manchester flagship. The five-floor 50,000 sq ft space is a slick, interactive environment with a putting green, bra studio, and new running concept and gait analysis feature.

In August 2023, Murray revealed Frasers had signed “significant leases” with British Land for more than 180,000 sq ft of retail space, which includes a flagship 120,000 sq ft site in Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre. Murray’s commitment to physical retail will decide Frasers' future success.

Heidi O'Neill
President, consumer and marketplace, Nike

Heidi O’Neill’s mandate – responsible for Nike’s physical and digital retail property – is among the most important to the retailer’s “NCX” strategy, which seeks to better its direct customer connections. Since joining Nike in 1998, O’Neill has made a success of senior roles across a variety of divisions, from marketing to stores, making her a multi-talented force within the brand.

Her current role is central to Nike’s work culling its wholesale partners to 40 from 30,000, to speed up innovation and to get rid of lacklustre retailers that are not delivering the knockout experience it wants.

One of the most recent experience-building projects from O’Neill’s team was the UK Nike Rise concept store launched in July 2022. Spanning 17,000 sq ft over two floors, the London White City store is a hotbed of technical innovations such as product information tables powered by RFID tags and a Nike by You personalisation station that offers repairs, patches and embroidery.  

Nike's high-impact retailing revolves around experience and this is something O'Neill knows how to keep delivering.

Angus Thirlwell
Co-founder and chief executive, Hotel Chocolat

Angus Thirlwell’s Hotel Chocolat post-pandemic bounce-back hasn’t quite panned out as expected: the chocolate specialist has cooled market expectations and in June issued its second profit warning of the year. The retailer now anticipates delivering revenues of £201.8m and underlying profit before tax of £0.3m for the 2023 financial year; nonetheless Thirlwell is continuing to make “hefty investments” into the brand.

Thirlwell plans to roll out 50 larger-format store-of-the-future sites across the UK in the next three to five years, after the Norwich and Nottingham stores performed “very strongly” since their openings in early 2022. The format includes sit-in cafes selling hot drinks and ice cream, more merchandise space, and is constructed from reusable and sustainable materials. Hotel Chocolat will also be opening five new retail park stores – each boasting a Velvetiser cafe – by Christmas.

While it has not been entirely smooth sailing, Thirlwell’s innate understanding of the business and unwavering vision for its future means Hotel Chocolat can return to glory once more; a return to sales and EBITDA growth is now expected by 2025.

Charlotte Tilbury
Founder, chair, president and chief creative officer, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty 

The fairy godmother of beauty, Charlotte Tilbury’s ability to make every product she launches an international viral sensation has the sector wondering if they can borrow her magic wand.

With 12.6 million likes, Tilbury’s business received the highest number of mentions on social sharing app TikTok of any premium beauty brands last year, according to a study by market research group Flamingo. To build on her brand’s social media success, Tilbury is making innovative omnichannel investments. Last November the Charlotte Tilbury 3D virtual world launched, complete with a metaverse gaming experience, giving users the chance to shop with friends, gain advice from pro makeup artists and access exclusive products.

In-person experiential activations are also underway, most recently in March in the form of a pink double-decker bus mobile store that has embarked on a tour of the UK and Europe to promote the Pillow Talk range.

The retailer – owned by Spanish beauty brand Puig but overseen by Tilbury – is enjoying sales and profit growth. Puig Group’s total beauty sales for the 2022 financial year rose by 52% to €626m (£540m), which was led by rapid sales advances at Charlotte Tilbury.

It said in a release: “Charlotte Tilbury was the UK's No.1 makeup brand in 2022.”

Michael Ward
Managing director, Harrods

Michael Ward has been pouring his energy into making the Harrods shopping experience more theatrical and immersive. At the helm of the department store brand for his 18th year, so far in 2023 Ward has awakened the Knightsbridge flagship with a pistachio-hued Prada Café with a modern Italian menu, smothered it in multicoloured dots in honour of Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and turned it into a living gingerbread house iced by Dior.

Beyond London, Ward has pushed on with the expansion of his special beauty format, H Beauty. Gateshead Metrocentre became its fifth location in June 2022, while in January 2023 Ward used the H Beauty Milton Keynes store to trial in-store recycling of cosmetic products.

In the year to January 28, 2023, Harrods’ operating profit climbed almost threefold from £55.5m to £158.4m and profit after tax rocketed from £41.7m to £433.3m.

Expect to see more theatrics in the year ahead, and for Ward to continue to speak up on behalf of its domestic and overseas customers on issues such as tax-free shopping.