Holland & Barrett hires Echo Lu to lead international growth
Holland & Barrett, the health and wellness retailer, has appointed former Homebase managing director Echo Lu to head up its international division.
She will also be responsible for driving organic, acquisition and franchise opportunities overseas.
Lu has twenty years of global general management, operations and HR experience in the retail and health care sectors. This includes ten years at Tesco in a variety of senior leadership roles, including regional HR director for Asia, chief operations officer for China and property director for the UK and Ireland. Most recently, she worked with Homebase as managing director.
Due to start her new role on 19 February, Lu will replace Kyle Rowe who is leaving the business after almost seven years with the company.
Holland & Barrett chief executive Peter Aldis said: “We are now entering a new and exciting chapter for our business and our new owners L1 share our ambition to scale up our global reach while consolidating our presence in the 16 territories in which we already operate.
“Echo is the ideal candidate to propel our international business to the next level. She has successfully led teams in complex multicultural environments and has extensive international experience across Europe, North America and Asia. We are delighted she is joining our Board and look forward to working alongside her to deliver our global ambition.”
Holland & Barrett’s international division has recently merged its Stockholm stores with Swedish health food chain Hälsa för Alla as part of plans to develop a portfolio of 500 stores across Scandinavia. It has also embarked on a partnership with the Apollo Hospitals Group to launch new stores across India and developed a franchise model as a platform for growth in new markets such as China, Singapore, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The company operates more than 1,100 stores across the world, including 788 branches in the UK and Ireland of which 32 are shop-in-shop concepts with Tesco. It was acquired by L1 Retail in September 2017.
