The chief executive of Shop Direct says the decade-long restructuring of the firm is now behind the firm and it is ready to move on to the next stage - making the company profitable.
Speaking to trade magazine Retail Week, he said: ‘We plan to make money as a business and we have a plan that I am confident will realise significant value. What we have given this business in the past nine months is a very strategic direction.’
The ‘heavy lifting’ to restructure two ailing business Littlewoods, acquired in 2002, and GUS Home Shopping, bought the year after, has been completed under former chief executive Mark Newton-Jones who left the business at the end of last month, he said.
Baldock arrived in September as the £1.7 billion turnover firm reported a pre-tax loss of £57.7 million. He said the group would concentrate on its core UK customer and for the time being was ‘not interested in international’. He said it would close its fledgling US Very business launched in 2011.
He said the business was divided into it legacy operations, which includes Littlewoods, and the fast-growing arm which includes very.co.uk. The firm still produces 4 million catalogues but that is ‘declining fast,’ he said. About 80 per cent of sales now come from online.
But he said personalisation was increasingly important and the group had to ‘perform the role of an editor’ as customers did not have time to trawl trough 70,000 skus when they went shoping.
It also appointed Karl Doyle earlier this year to improve product and work on developing own brands - such as clothing and footwear range Definitions for professional women in their late 20s or in their 30s.
He said 90 per cent of Shop Direct customers use credit to make purchases and it remains an integral part of the business.
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