Ocado Aims for Profit Improvement from Revamped Marketing Strategy
Online retailer Ocado is to see a major marketing strategy overhaul, marked by a company restructure of their senior management team.
Prompted by the surprise departure of their Chief Financial Officer Andrew Bracey, Ocado's founder Jason Gissing, currently Executive Director, will now assume strategic responsibility for the company's marketing.
In his newly created Commercial Director role, he will tackle Ocado's retail activities, customer relationships, marketing and brand development.
Meanwhile, Wendy Becker, former group CMO at Vodafone and Managing Director of TalkTalk, is set to join Ocado as an independent non-executive Director. In addition, Mark Richardson, currently the company's Head of Technology, will now assume the newly created role of board level Operations Director.
Chairman Michael Grade has said that the restructure will allow CEO Tim Steiner "greater freedom to drive Ocado's strategy forward", plus develop the reach and profitability of the business.
The shake-up follows Ocado's reporting of a slowdown in sales in the final quarter of last year. Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, has commented that because Ocado's recent performance has been "disappointing", there is a need for "meaningful change to presumably sharpen their operating performance".