Erin Brookes
Erin Brookes is head of retail & consumer (Europe) and managing director at global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal.
With over 20 years' experience in the sector, she advises household name retailers and investors on transformation, turnaround, and growth, with a focus on cost optimisation, margin improvement and operating model design. She is also a trustee of industry charity The Retail Trust.
With 20+ years of experience in retail and consumer industries, Erin was formerly a non-executive director of Revolution Beauty, and held roles in industry at The Body Shop International, under L’Oreal ownership. She has also acted as chief restructuring officer and interim chief marketing officer at Debenhams, and spent two years as senior enterprise fellow for retail at the University of Southampton, where she published on the future of the UK high street.
Opinion‘Fashion sales are in structural decline and that has big implications for retailers’
Fashion volumes have been on a downward trend for some years, observes Alvarez & Marsal’s Erin Brookes, who offers suggestions on how retailers should respond
Opinion‘Longstanding assumptions are being challenged as retailers navigate new reality’
Tough trading conditions mean that many retailers now recognise the need to strike a better balance between breadth of product and services and profitability, observes Alvarez & Marsal’s managing director Erin Brookes
Opinion‘Retailers are heading into a challenging period of adjustment post-Budget’
To make the numbers work post-Budget, retailers face tough choices to balance spiralling costs with the need to invest in productivity-enhancing areas such as technology. There is some action they can take though, points out Alvarez & Marsal’s Erin Brookes
Opinion‘Fashion retailers must be wary of customers holding out for lower prices’
Inflation has preoccupied retailers over the last few years but now fashion businesses face new questions as the prospect of deflation looms, warns Erin Brookes
Opinion‘Brightening retail outlook could create sweet spot for M&A this year’
After a challenging 2023, falling valuations and pent-up demand for deals could spark a revival in retail M&A as economic conditions stabilise, believes Erin Brookes
Opinion‘Halting retail crime epidemic will need a broad approach’
Partnerships between retailers, the police and the government are welcome but, given the scale of the challenge, companies must take steps of their own to ensure the safety of staff and minimise inventory loss, believes Erin Brookes
Opinion‘Successful digital transformation should also mean return on investment’
The current climate presents an opportunity for retailers to leverage the full spectrum of technological advancement, believes Alvarez & Marsal’s Erin Brookes
Opinion‘How to recover cost inflation while continuing to offer value to customers’
Grocers must walk a tightrope of managing their own inflationary pressures to preserve margins while continuing to win customers, says Alvarez & Marsal’s Erin Brookes
Opinion‘Greater discounting drove Black Friday sales for retailers getting the balance right’
Price reductions need to be significant to lure shoppers at present and managing value perceptions and profitability is a tough line to walk, says Alvarez & Marsal’s Erin Brookes
Opinion‘Even wealthy consumers may reach a tipping point where prices are too high’
Careful management is needed or luxury retail – often insulated from the effects of downturns – may not emerge unscathed from the impending recession, warns Alvarez & Marsal’s Erin Brookes
Opinion‘In this environment it’s not just profitability that’s at stake, but survival’
Retailers should take encouragement from how they have transformed themselves in recent years as they adopt tactics to confront today’s difficult environment, says Alvarez & Marsal’s European head of retail and consumer practice Erin Brookes
Opinion‘Avalanche of returns is dragging down profits in an industry living on thin margins’
Retailers are adopting a variety of measures to try to soothe the growing returns headache. Alvarez & Marsal’s head of retail Erin Brookes looks at how the challenge is being addressed
Opinion‘Seismic shifts accelerated by Covid will redefine retail in years to come’
Technology will remain key to retail’s transition in a complex marketplace, believes Erin Brookes, managing director and leader of the European retail and consumer practice at Alvarez & Marsal.
Opinion‘Retailers must rethink their supply chain strategy for the long term’
The supply chain challenges currently facing the retail sector have been well documented, but taking a longer view of the situation is crucial, says Erin Brookes, managing director for European retail and consumer at Alvarez & Marsal.
Opinion‘Expect more deals to come in grocery retail’
It is undeniable that the grocery sector is white hot with both opportunity and activity.
Opinion‘Retailers have difficult decisions to make now to future-proof their businesses’
Retailers should feel optimistic as the end of lockdown and social distancing measures loom into sight.
OpinionErin Brookes: ‘There is no doubt that further retail consolidation is coming’
Green shoots of optimism may be germinating, but it is certain that the last 12 months have left an irreversible imprint on the UK’s retail industry.
OpinionPicking the right partners is a customer conundrum
It is no secret that customer shopping behaviour is fundamentally changing, and at a rapid pace.