Home Retail Group makes new appointments for own brand push

Argos has brought in former Johnson and Johnson marketer Alyson Lockley to lead the development and delivery of its own brands strategy.

She reports directly into Argos marketing director Stephen Vowles and one of her first priorities will be to oversee the launch campaign for Argos' new furniture and homewares brand, Heart of House.

Lockley joins from Johnson and Johnson, where she was senior marketing director for Johnson’s Baby for EMEA.

She also spent three years at Boots working on the 17 Cosmetics and Botanics brands and has also held marketing roles at Pfizer, Virgin and L’Oreal.

Lockley has becomes responsible for a team of ten who oversee Argos’ own brands, which include Chad Valley and Bush.

Meanwhile, Argos parent company the Home Retail Group has hired Alexei Cowan as head of trends.

Cowan has been tasked with handling product and trend development across the Group, which also includes the Homebase brand.

For the past eight years she has worked at Next both designing products and co-ordinating its different ranges.

Source : Jennifer Faull - The Drum
www.thedrum.com/news/2014/08/19/argos-hires-alyson-lockley-own-brand-push