– UK, London – Kingfisher Plc (LON: KGF) today announced the appointment of Thierry Garnier as Chief Executive Officer.
Thierry will be appointed to the Board as an Executive Director and will take over from Véronique Laury as Chief Executive Officer. He will be based at Kingfisher’s headquarters in London and will join Kingfisher in the autumn. The effective date of his appointment will be announced as soon as it is finalised.
Véronique Laury will step down from the Board and as Chief Executive Officer by the end of September 2019.
Andy Cosslett, Chairman of Kingfisher, said: “On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to welcome Thierry to Kingfisher. He is a highly talented international retailer and proven business leader, with a strong track record over many years at Carrefour. Throughout his career he has led significant businesses through complex change programmes while operating in competitive and rapidly changing retail environments.”
She added: “In what was a rigorous recruitment process, Thierry stood out for the Board from a strong list of candidates due to his recognised operational know-how at a multi-national retail business, his delivery of long-term value creation, and his experience in driving leading-edge digital innovation, most recently in China.
At Kingfisher, he will take the reins of a strong and profitable business, and one which is also transforming to better serve its customers. In Thierry, we are convinced that we have found the right individual with the right skills to drive success from the platform that Véronique has established at Kingfisher.
The Board and I would again like to thank Véronique for her energy, her vision and determination in driving the transformation, and for successfully laying the foundations for future growth.”
About Thierry Garnier
Thierry is an experienced retailer having spent 20 years in senior roles at Carrefour, the French multi-national retailer. He is currently a member of the Carrefour Group Executive Committee and the Chief Executive Officer of Carrefour Asia, where he is responsible for over 350 stores in China and Taiwan, with 55,000 employees, and gross sales of over €6bn. In this role, he has established a successful track record of implementing business transformation in the face of significant competitive pressure and sector disruption. As the leader of Carrefour’s Asian business since 2012, he has developed and executed a strategy oriented around innovative new digital capabilities, centralised buying, new format implementation, e-commerce and strengthening stakeholder relationships.
From 2003 to 2008, Thierry was the Managing Director of Supermarkets for Carrefour France, where he successfully rebranded the Champion supermarket format to the Carrefour Market fascia. This format was rolled out to 1,000 supermarkets in France, with sales of approximately €13bn. During this period he oversaw a significant improvement in performance by doubling non-food sales, investing in own-brand ranges, improving the pricing structure and restructuring the supply chain. Following this successful period, he became Carrefour’s International Operations Director in 2008, with a broader remit including Asia, Latin America and various European countries.
Thierry Garnier commented: “I am delighted to be joining Kingfisher at an exciting point of its development. For over 20 years, I have had a great passion for retail, for retail teams, and for understanding and addressing changing customer behaviours. I believe that the home improvement market provides a great opportunity for us, and by harnessing Kingfisher’s market-leading positions and obvious strengths, consistently meeting our customers’ needs, embracing our digital opportunity and driving innovation, I am confident that we can build an even stronger business for our customers, our colleagues and our shareholders.”
Thierry has a Master’s degree in engineering from École Polytechnique, Paris, and from École des Mines de Paris. He speaks English, French and Mandarin.
He has been awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur (France).
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