People: Retail’s main job moves in August

The month started off with the departure of chief executive Simon Fox from HMV. This was in some ways not unexpected, as the business has been struggling for some time. (But as a true indicator of the state of the high street, take second-hand record shop owner Adrian Bayford winning £148m from the Euro lottery who could now quite easily buy HMV and not make a huge dent in his winnings.)

HMV also took losses in its finance and property department with finance director David Wolffe announcing he would leave when a successor is found, and head of property Mark Bowles going to Boots.

JJB, another troubled retailer, started the month off by announcing the appointment of Beverley Williams as interim chief executive. Williams was formerly commercial director of La Senza. Bob Corliss is also joining her as chairman, as Keith Jones has now left JJB; the business is now actively seeking a buyer.

On a positive note Theo Paphitis, after adding Robert Dyas to his growing retailing empire, has taken on Richard Bennett formerly the retail director for Spar UK as his chief executive for Ryman’s, and Nadine Jones as the group HR director across Ryman, Boux Avenue and Robert Dyas. Jones was formerly HR director at Links of London.

The BRC has also had some changes with Rob Templeman moving from chairman to deputy chairman and the appointment of Ian Cheshire as chairman. Cheshire has been the group chief executive of Kingfisher since January 2008 and an executive director since June 2000.

August’s main retail moves