Kingfisher appoints new Chief Customer Officer

Kingfisher has appointed former McDonald’s executive Pierre Woreczek as their first Chief Customer Officer.

Woreczek left McDonalds two months ago, after ten years with the fast food business, most recently as their Chief Strategy, Customer and Digital Officer.

Woreczek said “This is a great opportunity to join a business at a really interesting stage in its development. I look forward to working with all the teams to continue Kingfisher’s journey to create good homes by making home improvement accessible to everyone.”

Kingfisher is not the first retailer to appoint a Chief Customer Officer as Tesco, John Lewis and British Airways have introduced the role designed to streamline the customer’s journey from marketing through to transactions.

“Being customer centric is not enough,” Woreczek continued. “People are judging organisations with more elements in their hands so now I’m talking about winning the advocacy battle. We need to be more focused on advocacy.

Profit will only happen if people understand the value of a company and can buy into those values. Corporate strategy has become more important than brand strategy… companies are the engine of the brands.”

“I am delighted to welcome Pierre to Kingfisher,” said Véronique Laury, Kingfisher’s Chief Executive Officer. “He is a highly experienced international executive with a strong track record in marketing, operational and customer‐facing roles. I look forward to working with him as we develop the ‘ONE’ Kingfisher plan and become a single, unified company where customer needs always come first.”

Read the official Kingfisher press release here.

The appointment comes at a challenging time for Kingfisher. As the new owners of Homebase, Westfarmers, plan to inject £242m into the brand, creating significant competition for Kingfisher’s main brand, B&Q.

Source: Retail Gazette