Move of the Week: Steve Carson swaps supplements for sofas at ScS

The former Sainsbury’s, Home Retail Group and Holland & Barrett man will face arguably his biggest task to date when he takes over the reins of the sofa and carpet specialist ScS in the new year. 

Classified as an essential retailer, with a strong online presence and selling a wide range of health-boosting vitamins and supplements, Holland & Barrett has been as well placed as any retailer (with the exception of supermarkets) to ride out the pandemic. 

ScS, on the other hand, had to battle with the closure of its stores and distribution centres during the first lockdown. Although its sales recovered over the summer and early autumn period, regional restrictions followed by the second national lockdown have slammed the brakes on orders once again.

“In Carson, ScS has a leader with a broad range of experiences to call upon”

Looking ahead to next year, the task of persuading people to part with large sums of money for what are often discretionary purchases is significant enough before one factors in the potential reluctance of shoppers to return to non-essential physical stores.

At least in Carson, ScS has a leader with a broad range of experiences to call upon. After 15 years at Sainsbury’s, he joined Home Retail Group in 2006, working his way up through store and operational roles across the Argos and Homebase brands to the position of retail and customer operations director.

Carson joined Holland & Barrett as managing director in April 2018. While there he oversaw the day-to-day running of the UK business and was subsequently promoted to group managing director in March of last year when long-serving chief executive Peter Aldis stepped down.

Carson is regarded as a good all-rounder, strong on the customer proposition and experienced in leading digital transformations and guiding colleagues through periods of change.

At Holland & Barrett, Carson had the benefit of being surrounded by familiar colleagues from his Home Retail Group days with the likes of Echo Lu, Anthony Houghton and George Goley all filling senior roles.

“Carson is regarded as a good all-rounder, strong on the customer proposition and experienced in leading digital transformations and guiding colleagues through periods of change”

That won’t be the case at ScS, but Carson will be able to access the wisdom of lifer and long-time CEO David Knight who plans to deliver a lengthy handover before his retirement next July.

Knight will provide an invaluable sounding board as Carson gets to grips with the workings of the business and tests his own ideas.

Ultimately, however, it will be down to Carson to steer ScS through the choppy waters that undoubtedly lie ahead.