Joules appoints former John Lewis exec as CEO

British lifestyle group Joules has announced the appointment of Jonathon Brown as its new chief executive officer.

The appointment follows the group’s announcement in May 2022 that Nick Jones would be stepping down from the role.

Brown will be joining the group as CEO designate on September 7 and will become CEO September 30 after a handover period from Jones.

In prior roles, Brown has held leadership positions at the likes of Kingfisher, where he was director of multichannel, and John Lewis, where he was omnichannel director.

Most recently, he was CEO of Compare the Market, a subsidiary of BGL Group, where he has been credited with leading the business through a successful period of strategic transformation and growth.

In a release, Brown called Joules a very strong brand, and said that its recent digital transformation and increased customer base had given its solid foundations for the future.

Brown continued: “Whilst there have been some headwinds in the past year, I am very excited by the business’ future opportunities. The group is making strong progress against its clear plans to improve profitability by simplifying the business and optimising the cost base.”

A rocky year

The appointment comes after a rocky year for Joules, with it recently calling in a debt advisory firm to assist in improving its profitability.

In a statement at the time, the group said it is expected to have “sufficient liquidity” in order to manage its working capital requirements over the coming period.

The news followed a profit warning by the company in May, in which it cited that the cost-of-living crisis was impacting its sales across its full-price range.

Despite uncertainties, Joules confirmed last week that fashion retailer Next was in talks to snap up a stake in the company.

While still subject to shareholder approval, the group said it was looking into adopting Next’s Total Platform services, with its additional equity investment to make Next a strategic minority shareholder in the company.