Shock As Kate Bostock Leaves Asos With Immediate Effect

Asos executive director of product and trading Kate Bostock has left the company with immediate effect.

Asos chief executive Nick Robertson and Bostock released a statement broadly suggesting that her departure was by mutual consent and that there were no ill feelings.

However, the explanation that Asos 'is not the right platform for her talent'. But, perhaps revealingly, that her role 'will be fulfilled by existing members of the team until it decides 'whether there is a need to seek a replacement for Kate'..

One newspaper described the explanation as 'woolly' and was 'crafted to be obscure'. One analyst described the situation as 'embarrassing for both parties'.


Asos had pursued Bostock for close to two years.

Then several directors left almost exactly the same time as her appointment last October. They included product director Robert Bready, design director Sarah Wilkinson, buying director Caren Downie, ecommerce and product lead Nick Cust - now ecommerce director at Net-A-Porter. 

Finance director Jon Kamaluddin also left in April after nine years.

It is not clear if any of the departures were related to Bostock's appointment. But some critics had warned that Bostock may struggle to quickly adjust to the different corporate environments.

Whatever the real explanatoion seems clear is that a fleet-of-foot technology firm selling maybe 500 products from individual lines and four week lead times is a totally different organisation to one selling 50,000 products from individual lines and lead times that are up to nine months.

Dealing with suppliers at the different firms would also require a completely different approach.

Where exactly among all this Bostock fell short will no doubt become apparent in the coming weeks. But for now it is perhaps a lesson learned in the widening gulf between the old, traditional retail sector and the new.