More bosses forced out in Dixons cull
THREE Dixons Carphone directors have been forced out as boss Alex Baldock battles to get the business back on track.
Baldock, who joined from Littlewoods owner Shop Direct this month, has scrapped the company’s separate UK and Ireland management teams and replaced them with a single, pared back, executive committee.
The move comes as the 47-year-old stamps his authority on the struggling High Street chain following the departure of former chief executive Seb James and a string of other senior figures.
Dixons Carphone has been hit by subdued demand for mobile phones as customers baulk at increasingly expensive handsets. Shares have fallen 60pc since early 2016 and 39pc in the past 12 months. They fell 0.5pc, or 1.1p, to 203p yesterday
As part of move to get rid of unwanted layers of management, group strategy director Andrew Lawley, chief marketing officer Neil Hollins and services chief executive Keith Jones will leave the business next month. Baldock has also moved Antreas Athanassopoulos, chief executive of the group’s Greek business, to the newly created ro le of chief customer officer at the FTSE 250 listed firm. He will work with chief commercial officer Steve Ager and be responsible for making everything from marketing to financial services better for customers. Athanassopoulos has been credited with turning around Dixons Carphone in Greece, where sales shot up by 23pc over the Christmas period.
Others involved include Alan Ritchie, who will lead its customer-facing business, and Jeremy Fennell who continues as managing director.
Baldock, 47, told employees in an internal note that the structure was ‘the start of the next phase’ of Dixons Carphone’s transformation.
He said: ‘With our many strengths – strengths competitors can only dream of – we’re in the box seat to help millions of customers discover and enjoy the exciting (but confusing and expensive) world of technology. There’s a big prize for us there. I believe that this business’s best days lie ahead.’
The job cuts are the latest in a slew of departures at Dixons Carphone which has seen James, its finance director Humphrey Singer, and UK and Ireland boss Katie Bickerstaffe exit since the start of the year. In January, James, 52, announced he was leaving after six years to join Walgreens Boots Alliance – just two weeks after Singer, 51, revealed plans to jump ship to Marks & Spencer as commercial finance officer. Bickerstaffe, 50, will take her first chief executive role at the household gas and electricity business being formed by Npower and SSE.
Dixons Carphone, which is worth £2.3bn, has faced calls to review its store estate, particularly for its mobile phone arm, which makes up more than half of the group’s shops.