Holland & Barrett names John Walden as new chairman
Holland & Barrett has appointed former Argos managing director John Walden as its new chairman and reported an uplift in full year sales.
Having been a non-executive director of Holland & Barrett since the company was acquired by L1 Retail in 2017, Walden has held senior positions at numerous retailers in the US and the UK.
His previous roles also include managing director Argos parent company Home Retail Group. While there, Walden led the sale of the group’s Homebase DIY chain to Wesfarmers and the subsequent sale of Argos to Sainsbury’s. Prior to Argos, he held held various leadership roles at Best Buy, Sears Holdings and Peapod.
In addition to Holland & Barrett, Walden also serves as chief executive of retail strategy consultancy Inversion and on the advisory board of L1 Retail.
Stephan DuCharme, managing partner of L1 Retail, said: “I am delighted that John will lead the board of Holland & Barrett through this important phase of strategic investment. John has been instrumental in guiding the business since our acquisition of HBI last year, supporting the leadership team to focus on digital transformation, further investment in areas of future growth and exploiting international development opportunities.”
In a separate announcement covering its preliminary results, Holland & Barrett has reported that group revenues climbed by 7.1% to £702.4 million in the year to 30 September. Group like-for-like sales increased by 3.9% while group operating profit edged up 1.3% to £152.1 million.
