James Bailey, executive director, Waitrose

Even higher-end retailers have felt the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis, and Waitrose executive director James Bailey has had to flex all his strategic muscles to find the right way forward. The retailer opened its first convenience store in six years in November 2024, complete with a hatch for delivery drivers to collect orders. It also doubled down on its partnerships with Welcome Break service stations. New store openings that reach fresh locations, strategic partnerships and continued evolution in existing stores are all high on his agenda.

In the coming year, a £600m investment across Waitrose and sister business John Lewis will go into transformation, with particular focus on stores and supply chain, and a target of enhancing the customer experience, modernising technology and simplifying work processes.

Under Bailey’s leadership, Waitrose will continue to focus on high-quality service, introducing new products and keeping quality, sustainability, and food provenance in view. The annual report also noted that extra training for partners, new Waitrose shops in underserved areas and refurbishment of existing stores were all part of the strategy.

It’s a strategy that’s paying off. Bailey was buoyant on the retailer’s most recent earnings call in March 2025, reporting Waitrose sales growth of 4.4% to £8bn in the year to January 25, 2025, with volumes increasing by 2.6% over the same period – a bright spot for the John Lewis Partnership as a whole.

Alex Baldock, CEO, Currys

Currys’ chief executive Alex Baldock has guided the electricals giant through several challenging years. But while the industry continues to be buffeted, company financials point to some success. 

In Currys’ April 2025 trading statement, with five weeks of its financial year still to go, the group revealed that its sales since January had been “robust” and raised full-year profit expectations, anticipating that adjusted pre-tax profit will hit £160m – up from between £145m and £155m in its previous statement.

The improved numbers stem from strong like-for-like sales in the UK, Ireland, and even the Nordic arm of the business, which has been experiencing particular softness, all on the back of a strong Christmas.

Baldock said in January that good availability and deals were tempting customers to spend both in store and online: “AI laptops, where we have 75% market share, and premium mobiles proved especially popular.”  

Baldock’s strategy is to make the most of AI-driven technology, on one hand, describing it as “the single biggest tech trend since the tablet”. On the other, he is driving forward a mission to help consumers repair more tech, rather than only buy new. Currys' repair facility near Newark now employs more than a thousand people, a testament to how serious he is about creating a more sustainable tech industry.

Baldock has also warned that US tariffs might cause cheap electronics from China elsewhere to be “dumped” on the UK market.

Daniel Butters, CEO financial advisory, Teneo

Daniel Butters featured in the Retail 100 for the first time last year, representing his restructuring and financial advisory firm Teneo, but also restructuring firms and administrators more widely.

They’ve had a busy couple of years, managing a string of high-profile insolvencies and company overhauls. Teneo was called in to advise Carpetright in April 2024, with the carpet seller falling into administration three months later and beginning a sell-off of stores. Homebase plunged into administration in November 2024, appointing Teneo, and subsequently selling most of its shops to former competitors, including B&Q and The Range, which has preserved its brand name and site. In January 2025, Lakeland appointed Teneo to seek buyers for its 59 UK stores, and in February 2025, ailing retailer Quiz called in Teneo as an administrator to help it formulate a plan to sell off some of its stores while attempting to save others.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 2023 brought the highest number of company insolvencies since 1993. By comparison, in 2024, there was a slight dip, with 5% fewer UK insolvencies compared to the previous year. But the number of compulsory liquidations was at its highest level since 2014, with 14% more in 2024 than in 2023. Such tumultuous times are set to keep Teneo, and others like it, busy for a while yet..

Butters’ strategy is company-dependent, ranging from finding new owners to getting a business back on its feet, and from slimming operations to making a retailer more streamlined, to winding up its business in the most orderly and efficient way possible.

Helen Connolly, CEO, New Look

Helen Connolly is still in the midst of turning troubled fashion retailer New Look around. New Look entered a CVA in 2020 that it needed to complete, clearing certain debts by last year. It met the conditions in October 2024, and despite a chilly retail climate with shoppers less willing to spend, the brand seems to be making some progress.

In February, news came that the retailer would close all its 26 Republic of Ireland stores, with the loss of almost 350 jobs. But in other areas, it is doubling down on bricks-and-mortar stores. This included a £3.3m investment in Greater Manchester store refurbishment and openings “to elevate the shopping experience for our customers while bringing them fantastic-quality products and creating future growth for New Look,” Connolly said. In March, New Look announced the upcoming launch of a high-concept store at the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, designed to be an “omni-hub space where digital and physical customer journeys will come together in real life,” according to retail director Elaine Cartwright.  

Perhaps the biggest vote of confidence in Connolly comes from an April 2025 £30m cash injection from New Look owners Alcentra and Brait, which the retailer will use to invest in AI, ecommerce and data. The injection “means we can ramp up our digital operations, enhance customer service, drive growth, and achieve our goal of £1bn online demand by 2030,” Connolly said.

Chris Dawson, executive chair, The Range

Chris Dawson has had a busy couple of years. Last year his place in the Retail 100 list of top Strategists was in large part due to his canny acquisition and relaunch of Wilko.

This year, he has done it again, snapping up troubled rival Homebase and relaunching some of its stores under The Range banner, while also keeping the Homebase brand alive. The deal, which was completed in November 2024, brought CDS Superstores – owner of The Range – the Homebase brand name, intellectual property and 70 of its shops. It transformed some of those locations into Range-branded superstores, while others became hybrid. In January 2025, the first branch of The Range with a Homebase Garden Centre inside opened near Bournemouth. The Homebase website remains operational.

The Range, meanwhile, has opened nine in-store cafés to enhance customer experience, and began to offer click-and-collect in 60 minutes.   

Grand plans continue as The Range aims to open 10 new superstores a month in 2025, retaining staff from Homebase where possible.  

Alison Dolan, CFO, Marks & Spencer

Less than a year into the job, Alison Dolan has been faced with one of M&S’ most significant financial challenges for some time. The retailer estimated that the recent cyber incident will impact group operating profit by around £300m for the 2025/26 financial year.

Dolan’s extensive experience, including chief financial officer at Rightmove and senior positions at media businesses including News UK and Sky, will have helped her pivot quickly to come up with a strategy to offset some of that impact.

She brings a wider skillset than pure business nous. At News UK Dolan was chief strategy officer and closely involved in the company’s digital transformation – experience likely to be valuable at M&S as it recovers and builds its online and digital capabilities.

Despite the cyber-attack, Dolan joins M&S when its finances are in strong shape, following a successful financial year. Chief executive Stuart Machin has pointed out that the retailer has net funds of more than £400m and is in its “best financial health for nearly 30 years.”

Liz Evans, MD and chief commercial officer, non-food and retail, Asda

In January, Asda rewarded Liz Evans’ consistent high performance as managing director of its clothing brand, George, with another role as chief commercial officer, non-food and retail. She continues to lead on clothing but also oversees the grocer’s large store operations – part of a raft of changes that executive chair Allan Leighton referred to as “rediscovering our Asda-ness”. 

What is that Asda-ness? It hasn’t been an easy five years for the grocer, which has changed management and increasingly found itself squeezed between discounters on one side and traditional grocery competitors on the other.

A costly and troubled IT upgrade has continued to drag on, while the return of Rollback on prices hasn’t yet positively impacted sales. But amid an overall slump, the latest financial results reported in March 2025 showed that the one bright spot was Evans’ George, which captured 13% of the UK’s entire back-to-school clothing market during that busy period of the year, referred to in the results as a “standout success”.

Daniel Finley, CEO, Debenhams Group

Dan Finley is the first to note that he took over as chief executive in November 2024, at a time of “significant challenges”.  

The business he runs rebranded to Debenhams Group – the former high street giant’s name rising from the ashes – in March 2025. At the time, it was still called Boohoo Group, and it was struggling.  

Mike Ashley, founder of Frasers Group and Boohoo’s biggest shareholder, was angling to oust the existing management and be made chief executive. Finley, who was previously chief executive of Boohoo’s Debenhams business, took the reins of the whole group instead, and shareholders ultimately voted down Ashley’s bid for control. Finley replaced John Lyttle, who subsequently moved to Marks & Spencer.

Since then, Boohoo and the group’s other youth brand PrettyLittleThing have continued to perform poorly, but Debenhams’ marketplace-led business is doing well. In March, Finley told Retail Week that he wanted the brand to offer consumers a huge choice all in one place – in his words, “to be to retail what Spotify is to music”.

Finley’s strategic focus on innovation and streamlining could have a group-wide positive impact. Finley’s group is “sharply focused on maximising value for all shareholders” following its exit from administration and “will be a leaner, faster and more technologically advanced business – utilising next-generation technology to maximum effect”. 

Thierry Garnier, CEO, Kingfisher

As the chief executive of B&Q and Screwfix owner Kingfisher, Thierry Garnier wasn’t surprised when the company reported a drop in profits in March.

“As expected, the wider market backdrop was a headwind,” he said, as costs rose for the industry and the cost-of-living crisis continued to eat into consumer demand. Big-ticket sales at Kingfisher declined by 4.4%, and seasonal sales by 2.5%. Overall, the group reported a 7% fall in pre-tax profit to £528m.

But Garnier is determined to weather the storm, saying that the group maintained a “laser focus on managing costs and cash,” removing £120m of structural costs in the year. Speaking to Retail Week, he said home repair and renovation would remain critical to the UK consumer. Furthermore, while it was sad to see a competitor like Homebase fail, Garnier said the result might be a small net benefit to Kingfisher. Garnier is also eyeing the expansion of Screwfix into other European markets if its French business continues to deliver. 

Garnier’s marketplace-focused strategy continues to evolve. The Kingfisher Group launched its first marketplace at B&Q in 2022, followed later that year by launches at Brico Dépôt in Spain and Portugal. In March 2024, a marketplace was introduced at Castorama France, and in January 2025, the company announced plans to launch one in Poland. This new marketplace will feature 500,000 products from verified third-party merchants, available through its ecommerce platforms. According to Kingfisher’s third quarter results, marketplace sales accounted for 41% of B&Q’s total ecommerce sales in October 2024. 

Lucy Gorman, CEO, THG Beauty

Lucy Gorman is a new entrant to the Retail 100 in 2025 and a clear fit for the Strategists category. THG Beauty, which owns retailers including Lookfantastic and Cult Beauty, has enjoyed recent double-digit sales growth.

Gorman probably couldn’t know the brand better. She joined as an intern while studying for her degree in 2012 and returned as a graduate employee in 2013. She rose to oversee the Nutrition business and was promoted to CEO of Beauty in 2022. In February this year, she was given oversight of both divisions.

While Cult Beauty has done well, especially through canny social campaigns, and Lookfantastic has opened its first physical store in the past 12 months, the group as a whole hasn’t achieved superb results.

Over the key Christmas period, THG Beauty suffered a 1.3% decline in sales, despite the period being busy for others. The Nutrition arm’s sales declined 12.7%.

However, following the demerger of the Ingenuity division, THG is now, in the words of founder Matt Moulding, “fully focused on THG Beauty and THG Nutrition”. 

Gorman has adopted a strategy of using data to offer personalised recommendations, like Lookfantastic’s AI-powered foundation finder that brings together customer data with in-house colour algorithms, combined with good customer service, including easy returns and community building, to make the customer experience as seamless as possible.

Anthony Hemmerdinger, CEO, Boots UK

Anthony Hemmerdinger is navigating a time of uncertainty at high street stalwart Boots. He replaced former boss Seb James in September 2024, and may now have to steer the company through a potential sale or IPO. That’s a possibility after the retailer’s owner, Walgreens Boots Alliance, agreed to a takeover by private equity firm Sycamore Partners in March through a $10bn deal.

Will the new owners sell off Boots UK? The pharmacy and health business is doing well, according to its latest quarterly results, the first to be reported since its parent company’s sale.

In the three months to February 2025, Boots’ pharmacy sales were up 5% and retail sales rose 5.1% year on year. Online sales, which account for a fifth of all products sold, rose by an impressive 19.5% in the quarter. Hemmerdinger, meanwhile, flagged Budget-related costs as a headwind in March but said: “With positive momentum behind us and a clear plan in place, the business is focused on navigating and continuing to deliver long-term, sustainable growth.”  

Elliott Hill, CEO, Nike

Elliott Hill might never have expected to be in the Retail 100 list – or back at Nike. After 32 years at the company, he retired from his role as president of consumer and marketplace in 2020.

But in September 2024, falling profits and market share led Nike to oust its boss, former eBay leader John Donahoe, and seek someone who knew the business of trainers and sports inside out.

Nike’s performance is important beyond the brand itself. JD Sports chief executive Régis Schultz criticised the brand this year for a lack of innovation, and it’s certainly seen some new competition in the form of challengers like Castore.

Hill laid out his strategy for the brand he says he loves “irrationally” in December 2024, including a return to focus on sports and athletes, and away from non-core products.

Donahoe was ousted because of poor performance, and in Nike’s latest earnings, the trend continued. For the three months ended February 28, 2025, sales were down 9%, driven by weakness in China, where sales fell 17%. The company’s net income for the quarter was £594m, compared with £875m a year earlier. Hill responded by saying the brand would need to “accelerate our pace.”

Giles Hurley, CEO, Aldi UK

Aldi has been trading in the UK for 35 years, and Kantar data released in March showed just how far it has come. It now holds 11% of the UK grocery market, only 1.5 percentage points behind Asda and firmly in the big four.

Grocers are engaged in price matching, reductions, promotions and trying to woo customers away from each other. In a market where consumers feel financially stretched, Aldi seems to be winning in terms of value perception. A YouGov BrandIndex survey of more than 25,000 customers from March 2025, found that 53.8% of respondents said they thought it was the cheapest supermarket, ahead of value rival Lidl and all the other grocers.

In a climate ripe for a discounter to expand, Giles Hurley is doing just that. The retailer said in September 2024 that it would make its biggest investment ever in Britain, with £800m earmarked for expansion, after its full-year figures for 2023 showed a 16% leap in sales. It followed through on the promise with 11 new store openings before Christmas, a pledge to invest more in Scotland, and the announcement in January of nine more London stores. But Hurley also showed himself keen to reward staff during the journey, increasing wages in and outside London higher than rivals and offering paid breaks.

Pilar Losada, MD, Inditex UK

Pilar Losada is a new entrant to the Retail 100, having stepped up to her current role in October 2024, after her predecessor Max Nutz exited a 25-year career at Inditex. Losada was already a veteran at Inditex, which owns brands including Zara and Bershka. She joined Inditex Spain in 2010, and before taking up the UK reins, ran Australia and New Zealand, as well as holding a prominent role in the Asia division.

As a whole, Inditex is thriving. For the year to January 31, 2025, sales across all brands grew 7.5% to €38.6bn (£32.5bn) and profit increased 10.3%. Zara and Zara Home have been particularly successful over recent years, and the company continues to open stores across its brands. Pull & Bear and Bershka both opened their first Glasgow locations in 2025 and a “strong commitment to grow” was the pledge of its group chief executive, one Losada will be putting into practice.

Stuart Machin, CEO, Marks & Spencer

A cyber attack on M&S, launched in April 2025, threatened to take some of the shine off boss Stuart Machin’s triumphant steerage of the retailer but, once again, the industry will look to Machin for lessons learnt from an incident that cannot dull his ongoing industry influence.

Announcing its full-year result for the 52 weeks to March 29, 2025, Machin said the attack would cost an estimated £300m. Acknowledging the challenge it had posed, Machin keen to look forward, focused on recovery “with the aim of exiting this period a much stronger business” and assuring “no change to our strategy and our longer-term plans to reshape M&S for growth”. In fact, always the strategist, he hailed the opportunity for faster change.  

Over the past year, Machin has presided over impressive growth and innovation at M&S. Full-year results for 2025/26 included pre-tax profits and adjusting items up 22.2% to £875.5m, the highest level in over 15 years for M&S. 

Machin’s drive and attention to detail earned him the prestigious Retail Leader of the Year award at Retail Week’s 2025 Awards. As well as recognising his achievements as M&S chief executive, the award also reflected his role as an industry champion. He’s been outspoken about issues affecting every company, from retail’s importance as a large-scale employer to the burden of rising costs.

Lyssa McGowan, CEO, Pets at Home

It has not been smooth sailing for Pets at Home this year. Going into her third year at the helm, Lyssa McGowan has been vocal about how much she thinks the latest Budget is hurting business, as well as some key staff demographics. The company has reined in its profit expectations after weak sales at the end of 2024.

For the 12 weeks to January 2, 2025, the pets specialist reported a 2.4% slump in retail revenues, and a 2.8% drop in like-for-likes. The company “saw a more challenging consumer backdrop with particularly weak footfall from October”. In March 2025, Pets at Home cut next year’s profit guidance to a range of £115m to £125m because of Budget-associated costs.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however. The company’s most recent results saw a 21.3% increase in Vet Group revenues, and the year ended with a record number of Pets Club members, a new digital platform that is “functioning well” and a strong growth in subscriptions.

As competition from Jollyes mounts, McGowan’s strategy is focused on streamlining the business – with a current consultation with 2,500 staff and restructuring of roles underway – cutting costs, and the company’s expansion in both physical stores and tech. Customer data will also continue to underpin strategy, having already supercharged the evolution of the retailer’s digital platform and its expanding ecosystem.

Tom Morris, founder, Home Bargains

Pre-tax profits at Home Bargains surged 35% to £454.8m in the year to 30 June 2024, while sales increased 11%.

The company, which sells discounted products in categories including homewares, food, clothing and toys at its 617 stores, said the boost came from opening new locations and relocating others, as well as robust sales.

Tom Morris, the reclusive billionaire who owns almost all of Home Bargains’ parent TJ Morris, reportedly paid himself a mighty dividend of over £1bn, after sales at the chain topped £4.2bn.

The retailer plans to keep expanding. It opened 31 new stores in 2024 and is targeting a total of between 800 and 1,000 by the end of 2025, with the company’s corporate site asserting it is “hungry for new stores” that meet its criteria.

It also utilised technology to target rising levels of retail crime, with AI-enabled cameras watching tills for unscanned items. Technology forms an important piece of the retailer’s strategy. A new distribution centre to be located in Doncaster was announced in March 2025 to support Home Bargains’ expansion plans. The automated facility will use state-of-the-art picking technology in partnership with logistics firm WITRON.

Ken Murphy, CEO, Tesco

When he unveiled full-year results in April, Ken Murphy was able to celebrate Tesco winning its highest market share in almost 10 years, following consistent focus on fundamentals such as price appeal and product innovation.

Murphy saw “further opportunities to strengthen our competitiveness” by relentlessly focusing on the customer. But, as competition in food retail intensifies, he signalled flexibility and the necessary financial “firepower” to maintain price competitiveness as being needed, including some profit sacrifice if required.

Building the business has been accompanied by cost-cutting – more than £500m in the 2024 financial year, and he’s planning to do the same again this year.

But Murphy certainly isn’t hunkering down or staying still. 2024 was a particularly dynamic year for the brand with investment in staff pay and new store openings, the expansion of partnerships such as with toy brand The Entertainer, and innovations in fighting retail crime. Tesco also won the Tech Mahindra Grocer of the Year Award at the Retail Week Awards 2025.

Murphy’s business benefits from the market-leading Clubcard scheme. He’s also pursuing long-term growth opportunities through plans to enhance digital capabilities with increased personalisation, further improvements to the online experience and an expanded retail media offering. 

Paula Nickolds, CEO, The White Company

Paula Nickolds has now been in post at The White Company for just over a year, having made her name in high-profile roles at John Lewis and Sainsbury’s.

Turnover at the homewares and fashion firm in the year to the end of August 2024, grew 4% to £299.7m, with a 5% growth at stores supported by new openings and a 1% growth online. Underlying EBITDA was down 2% over the period, but company results filed in April attribute that to a one-off cost of moving distribution centres.

Nickolds is well placed to up the momentum given her strategic experience. As general merchandise and clothing director at Sainsbury’s she oversaw £7.5bn in turnover across brands including Argos, own-brand clothing range Tu and Habitat.  

But it was at John Lewis that Nickolds learned her craft and grew into the strategist she is today. Starting as a graduate trainee in 1994 and stayed for 26 years as she climbed the ranks of seniority until being promoted to managing director of the non-food division in 2017. Nickolds will no doubt be flexing her strategic strengths, particularly within fashion, to help further The White Company's digital transformation, build on its retailer partnerships with the likes of Next and John Lewis, and continue investing in products to boost its lifestyle credentials, while keeping its stores as central to its omnichannel model.

Ije Nwokorie, CEO, Dr Martens

Ije Nwokorie has barely had a chance to cut his teeth as chief executive since being promoted to the role from chief brand officer in January 2025, but his increased influence has been on the radar for some time – he was in the Retail 100 Ones to Watch last year.

Nwokorie needs to turn around the iconic shoe and boot brand. A year ago, Dr Martens posted a fall in profits and was called on by one of its shareholders, Marathon Equity Partners Management, to launch a strategic review.

Things seem to have settled down since then. Despite a 10% year-on-year decline to £787.6m, group revenue was in line with guidance for the year ending March 2025, with an adjusted pre-tax profit of £34.1m.

But driven by its fresh ‘Levers For Growth’ strategy, the brand expects adjusted pre-tax profit to soar to within the range of £54m to £74m for the current financial year.

This success is being pinned on Nwokorie’s strategic priority of moving away from a narrow focus on boots and the direct-to-consumer channel to a broader approach that targets everyday wearers, leaning more heavily on shoes, sandals and bags, while being sure not to dial down on the brand’s legendary boots. Nwokorie’s marketing experience will continue to be critical for reigniting consumer demand across its iconic products. 

José Antonio Ramos Calamonte, CEO, Asos

Losses continued at Asos last year, as the online fashion brand sought to improve customer experience, upgrade tech and stay relevant.

But while the company still has its struggles, José Antonio Ramos Calamonte’s third year at the helm is also its third of fewer losses, signalling that his leadership may be helping get the fashion retailer back on track.

In the 26 weeks to March 2, 2025, Asos reported a pre-tax loss of £241.5m, narrowing from a £270m loss the previous year. EBITDA for the half year to March 2025, meanwhile, was up by nearly £60m, driven by sustained cost discipline and a strategy of significantly reducing its stock levels, improving products and working to make operations more efficient. It’s also rebuilding much of its technology and tech processes, hiring more than 100 new engineers and 40 new product managers.  

Ramos Calamonte noted that Asos has continued to evolve, and focus not only on cost savings but speed to market and quality. And customers are responding. In the half-year, Asos launched Topshop’s website, the Asos World Loyalty Programme, better search and personalisation, and a new AI-backed stylist tool, as well as addressing the causes of unnecessary returns.

Simon Roberts, CEO, Sainsbury’s

Innovation is key to staying competitive and Sainsbury’s is doing plenty of it. From opening its first airport concession, to installing Royal Mail lockers in its stores, digital touchscreens in aisles and enhanced self-checkout technology, as well as leveraging data collected through its Nectar scheme.

“We’ve transformed our business over the past four years. We have created a winning combination of value, quality and service that customers love, investing £1bn in lowering our prices,” Simon Roberts said in his prelims statement in April.

The grocer is rebalancing its stores to give more space back to food, as well as opening more new stores – it acquired 14 new supermarket sites in the year from Homebase and Co-op. In another strategic move, it is updating its management structures to speed up decision-making. Nectar360, the overarching name for the company’s retail media scheme, will get even more focus. Sainsbury’s is ahead in its “plan to deliver at least £100m incremental profit from Nectar360 over the three years to March 2027”.

Even so, Roberts sounded a cautious note when talking about the near future in the grocery market, but he has plenty of reasons to be proud of what Sainsbury’s has achieved this year, when the grocer joined retail’s £1bn profit club.

Peter Ruis, executive director, John Lewis

Peter Ruis returned to John Lewis in January 2024, after a decade away from the business, with a remit to turn it around. He brought with him a fresh perspective from leading brands including Jigsaw and Anthropologie in the interim, but also plenty of John Lewis Partnership experience from his earlier career.

During 2024, Ruis sought first and foremost to restore John Lewis’ mojo. A significant move was to bring back the department store’s famous ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ strapline – modernised to be newly relevant. He has also sought to bring more in-store excitement, such as the revamp of shops, including Oxford Street’s beauty hall.

Results from the year since his return have been encouraging, although there is still work to do. John Lewis’ sales were in line with the previous year at £4.8bn but adjusted operating profit dropped by £16m to £45m. “This year has been pivotal for our business in what remains a challenging environment for the sector. We have taken steps to invest in the performance of John Lewis. Our focus has been on providing even better value through the return of the Never Knowingly Undersold promise, improved customer service and better product ranges,” the retailer said.

Jason Tarry, chair, John Lewis Partnership

Jason Tarry returns to the Retail 100 this year in a new role. In 2023, he appeared as a People Champion when he advocated for staff at Tesco as part of his role as CEO of UK and Ireland at the grocery giant. Now, Tarry brings his huge retail experience to John Lewis, replacing Sharon White in the role of board chair at the department store.

He joins at a time of improvement for the Partnership after a few slack years. The number of active My Waitrose members was up by 7% to 4.6 million over 2024, and My John Lewis up 11% to 3.7 million, both of which pointed to the fact that the brands were engaging well with customers, Tarry has said.

He sees “a lot of headroom” in both John Lewis and Waitrose. Tarry told Retail Week in March 2025 that there were investments still to be made in stores, supply chains, technology and efficiency. That room to manoeuvre gives him “great confidence”.

Darcy Willson-Rymer, CEO, Card Factory

Darcy Willson-Rymer’s Strategist muscles are being tested this year. In 2024, the greetings card company boss was publicly bullish on US expansion, telling Retail Week that the $60bn US card market was key to Card Factory’s success. In December, the company backed up that claim with the £20m acquisition of Garven Holdings, a Minnesota-based company specialising in gift design and wholesale.

As it targets the US, despite international trade disruption following the re-election of Donald Trump, Card Factory remains confident. It has said it does “not expect there to be a material impact from tariffs” in the financial year just started.

Card Factory’s recent results showed a rise in annual adjusted profit as the retailer enacts its strategy. That includes space optimisation, which has helped stores perform well, building share in the wider celebrations market and partnerships in the UK – as with Aldi – as well as in the US.

The retailer also followed up last year’s move into click-and-collect with a partnership this year with Just Eat that offered on-demand delivery of cards and other celebration essentials to convenience-hungry customers.

Lord Simon Wolfson, CEO, Next

Clothing and homewares retailer Next raised its profit outlook for the current year in May 2025, after warmer weather resulted in a “better than expected” first quarter of trading.

That followed a strong 2024 performance in which pre-tax profit rose an impressive 10% to £1.011bn in the year to January 25, 2025, while total group sales rose 8.2% to £6.32bn.

But cool-as-a-cucumber Simon Wolfson wasn’t going to let himself get carried away by the results. Instead, he used the moment as an opportunity to point out that retailers are operating in a particularly tough environment right now. Burdening big business with extra costs impacts the lives of millions of ordinary people, he told Retail Week. “Consumers through higher prices, workers through fewer jobs, and savers through lower pension income,” Wolfson said.

Wolfson’s long tenure at Next has made him one of the industry’s most respected leaders and strategists. The business has continued to evolve and increasingly to “break free of historic constraints” as it grows on two big fronts, product and platform. That is opening new opportunities as Next takes advantage of international growth potential and deploys its technological and logistics prowess to provide services to other retailers through the Total Platform business.