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Dame Joan Withers: The Warehouse Group Chair on the company getting a new CEO · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
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  Speaker 2: The Warehouse has finally found a new CEO after a
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  Speaker 2: year of searching. The CFO Mark Sturton has been announced
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  Speaker 2: as the replacement. He's going to take over in August
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  Speaker 2: and the chair, Dame Joan Withers, is with me. Now,
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  Speaker 2: how Joan, how are you, Heather? I'm very well, thank you. No,
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  Speaker 2: you searched for a year, you went around the world,
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  Speaker 2: you ended up back in your own place.
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  Speaker 3: What happened, Well, we didn't search for a year. When
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  Speaker 3: we appointed JJ into the old John Jana early last year,
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  Speaker 3: he came on board in May, it was clear that
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  Speaker 3: there was a lot that needed to be done, so
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  Speaker 3: Joj really worked on the heavy lifting. We were moving
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  Speaker 3: away from an agile organizational structure to a different way
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  Speaker 3: of working that took time. We obviously had to refocus
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  Speaker 3: business priorities, and when the board put him in as
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  Speaker 3: interim Group Chief Executive, we said, you're not babysitting. You've
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  Speaker 3: got somewhat heavy lifting to do here, and he did that.
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  Speaker 3: So we didn't actually start looking for a new CEO
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  Speaker 3: until late last calendar year. So yes, we did do
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  Speaker 3: a comprehensive and thorough multi market search, and I'm delighted
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  Speaker 3: because we've come back to a scenario where Mark Sterton,
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  Speaker 3: who was appointed in April last year as the group CFO,
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  Speaker 3: has basically been doing a one year job interview and
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  Speaker 3: has continued to impress the board. But rather than just
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  Speaker 3: annoyed someone internally, we went through that thorough process so
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  Speaker 3: that we could be absolutely confident we've got the best
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  Speaker 3: possible person for the job, and that's Mark.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think your company has turned a corner.
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  Speaker 3: I certainly think so, and you know, the economy is
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  Speaker 3: still bouncing along the bottom. It's very very tough out there.
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  Speaker 3: I think the Warehouse was really at the bleeding edge
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  Speaker 3: of what happened in terms of the economy. I think
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  Speaker 3: other companies are starting to see that. But internally, the
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  Speaker 3: fundamentally important work that JJ has done has meant that
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  Speaker 3: we are much better focused. And obviously we are totally
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  Speaker 3: reliant on serving our one and a half million customers
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  Speaker 3: every week with the best possible products at the best
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  Speaker 3: possible prices, and that's been his focus and we're certainly
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  Speaker 3: going down that track and we're starting to see some
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  Speaker 3: green shoots.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good stuff, And are you seeing green shoots in
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  Speaker 2: the economy.
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  Speaker 3: It's a little bit early to say, you know, at
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  Speaker 3: the moment. The other complexity is the weather. So it's
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  Speaker 3: been warm. We had a few cold days the week
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  Speaker 3: before last, and immediately we saw a massive uptick. So
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  Speaker 3: it's just hard to say. I hope today's OCR announcement
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  Speaker 3: gives a bit of further impetus to people's getting out
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  Speaker 3: there and using some of that discretionary spend, but it's
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  Speaker 3: still going to be a grind I think for the
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  Speaker 3: next six months.
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  Speaker 2: When you talk about the weather, you're talking about the
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  Speaker 2: fact that it's basically nobody's been incentivized to go and
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  Speaker 2: buy winter gear. That's the problem, right exactly.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, when you get a cold snap, it
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  Speaker 3: really makes a difference. So we're just hoping it'll come
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  Speaker 3: in the next few weeks.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, I'm just interested. You talked about moving from an
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  Speaker 2: a job business. What did you move to.
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  Speaker 3: We're back to a more I guess you'd say traditional
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  Speaker 3: organizational structure, but very much brand focused. So, as you're
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  Speaker 3: probably aware, we went down the whole omnichannel route with
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  Speaker 3: what happened over covid and what we thought would be
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  Speaker 3: the move to online obviously didn't play out in the
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  Speaker 3: way that we and many other retailers anticipated. So we're
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  Speaker 3: very focused now on our three core brands. You will
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  Speaker 3: know that, you know, sort of eighteen months ago now
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  Speaker 3: we let Torpedo seven go, we closed down THEMS dot com.
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  Speaker 3: So we're really focused on making sure that those brands
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  Speaker 3: have the resource and the leadership they need to super
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  Speaker 3: serve their target markets.
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  Speaker 2: Joan, what's your take on agile.
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  Speaker 3: Look, we were at the bleeding edge as well on
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  Speaker 3: that there weren't really any retailers in the world. Walmart
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  Speaker 3: had flirted with it. We did go around the world
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  Speaker 3: and have a look at where it was working. It
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  Speaker 3: was interesting. I was in the US a year ago
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  Speaker 3: and got some time at Microsoft. Was sat in Adella
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  Speaker 3: and I asked him about Agile and what was happening
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  Speaker 3: in the States with it, and he says, well, we've
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  Speaker 3: still got agile, but we call it Franken Frankenstein agile now.
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  Speaker 3: So everybody's doing their own thing, and at Microsoft they're
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  Speaker 3: using AI agents as part of the Agile squads, So
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  Speaker 3: everybody's doing it. A bit differently. It just didn't work
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  Speaker 3: for us, and you know when that happens, you've got
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  Speaker 3: to act quickly. So again back to John Jena and
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  Speaker 3: the work you did. Changing an organizational structure is not
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  Speaker 3: easy and we needed to get all of that done
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  Speaker 3: before we put a new CEO.
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  Speaker 2: Joan, it's wonderful to talk to you. Thank you for
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  Speaker 2: your time. That's Dame Joan Withers, Chair of the Warehouse Group.
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