Damian McGloughlin poached by Bunnings

News has reached the Insight DIY offices this evening that Damian McGloughlin, Retail Director for B&Q UK & Ireland has left the business with immediate effect.

We now know that once his garden leave is over, he'll be joining Bunnings as their new Chief Operating Officer.

Damian's LinkedIn profile describes his current role as 'Retail Director of B&Q UK & Ireland, part of the Kingfisher Leadership Group. Responsible for an annual sales turnover of £4bn and management of £900m cost lines which includes a broad spectrum of Head Office functions such as Asset Protection, Format Change and Logistics. Retail strategy executed through delivery of ‘three lenses’; relentless about the customer, talent and executing the corporate plan. Accountable for the line management of 8 Directors, 30 Regional Managers, 360 Stores including Ireland as separate trading business. Overall leadership of 30,000 colleagues within the Retail team'.

Only 12 months ago he appeared in a B&Q Retail Communications video, telling everyone about his journey at B&Q - you can watch the video here.

Little did we know that his journey was going to come to such an abrupt end, so quickly!

This is a huge coup for Bunnings, poaching one of the 'biggest hitters' in the industry at a critical time in the development of their business.

Even as we're publishing this story, we're picking up on further resignations from B&Q, including head of their customer call centre and a senior member of their property team - we'll of course bring you more detail as soon as we have it.

Source: Steve Collinge & Insight DIY Team

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