By Ian McConnell
PETER Wood, chief executive of global fashion brands AllSaints and John Varvatos, has joined the board of the British Retail Consortium as a non-executive director.
Mr Wood, who was chief financial officer at Scottish businesses Vets Now and USC before joining AllSaints and is a University of Glasgow graduate, highlighted his view that the BRC had “provided strong leadership and support for our industry throughout the pandemic”.
READ MORE: Brexit: Boris Johnson must heed fears his bonfire could make UK goods ‘unsellable’ in Europe
The chartered accountant declared: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to become more involved. The ways customers can engage and shop with retailers continue to evolve and expand at pace and, as the largest private sector employer, our industry has a fantastic pool of talent to work with.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Why did Tory Brexiters think this was a good idea?
“I look forward to offering my passion and experience to help the BRC and its members harness these positive dynamics and overcome the challenges that we face.”
Mr Wood joined British brand AllSaints as chief financial officer in 2010, then worked as chief operating officer before being appointed chief executive in 2018, with US luxury menswear brand John Varvatos added to the group during the pandemic. The combined businesses employ around 2,500 people and have a strong digital presence alongside physical stores in 20 countries, the BRC noted.
Kate Seljeflot, chief people officer at B&Q and Screwfix owner Kingfisher, is also joining the BRC board.
Ms Seljeflot said: “Retail plays an incredibly important role in providing quality jobs in local communities, developing essential skills, and championing social mobility. I want to put my passion for people into supporting the BRC and its members at this critical juncture, in particular by driving forward its diversity and inclusion charter and its new learning business. As labour markets around the world tighten, it will be those retailers who truly engage and develop their people who will be rewarded.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here