Arcadia looks to ‘drive forward digital ambitions’ with senior hires

Philip Green’s embattled fashion group Arcadia has announced three new hires: Group Chief Digital Officer (a new role) Rafaele Petruzzo, Chief Information Officer Karl De Bruijn and Simon Pakenham-Walsh, Director of Digital and Retail Technology.

Petruzzo joins from digital payments provider Nets Group, where he was Chief Transmission Officer. He has also been Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Homeserve and Group Payments Strategy Director at Tesco.

De Bruijn is the former Primark IT Transformation Director, whilst Pakenham-Walsh was previously CIO for Sainsbury’s Food. Chief Executive Ian Grabiner said the appointments aimed to “drive forward digital ambitions and boost sales from online channels”.

Arcadia reported an operating loss of £138 million in the year ending 1st September 2018 and a 4.5% drop in turnover to £1.8 billion. It attributed this to the “ongoing challenging global market conditions for retailers” and increased competition from other high street and online players.