Kingfisher’s JJ Van Oosten talks EU policymakers helping under pressure retailers
Retailers are facing more changes in the coming decade than they experienced in the last ten, especially with the digitalisation of the sector, says JJ Van Oosten, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Kingfisher.
At EuroCommerce this week, Van Oosten discussed how EU policymakers can help.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: “Retailers are the biggest number employer by sector in Europe: 26 million citizens.”
He added that EU policymakers should strategically invest in attracting and developing software engineers and data scientists (“100,000 additional resources as a min with a constant flow of new talent”).
“Regulation like DMA and DSA is OK, but keep it dynamic and agile to enable our sector,” he continued
“Keep European citizens’ data in Europe. It is safe, simple and easy to achieve.”
Chris Blatchford
Kingfisher, which operates in eight countries across Europe under retail banners including B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Screwfix, TradePoint and Koçtaş, recently announced the appointment of Chris Blatchford as Group CIO.
He joined from RELX Elsevier where he most recently served as Chief Technology Officer.
Before that he held a variety of technology roles at Thomson Reuters, including Head of Enterprise Technology, and served as Head of Professional Services, Europe, at CPA Global.
Blatchford, who is new to the retail sector, has now taken to LinkedIn to give an early progress report.
In a post, he said: “Incredibly, it's already been six weeks since I joined Kingfisher. I'm still entirely overwhelmed with the sheer complexity and scale of the operation, having stepped into an unfamiliar industry, but it's also been one of the most invigorating times of my career.”
He added: “I believe challenging yourself and embracing the feeling of being uncomfortable is an important trait in self development and growth, and I can confidently assert that has been the case the last few weeks.”
“What has been perhaps the most encouraging is the calibre of people we have at Kingfisher and the banners.”
“There is an infectious level of dedication and love for the brands, a real focus on the customer; the direct, tangible connection between the work we do and how our customers consume our products is incredibly rewarding, none more so that within technology and engineering teams.”
Blatchford went on to discuss Kingfisher’s “big plans” to evolve a world class technology capability, building upon the strong foundations that have served the business over the decades.”
The retailer is developing data driven recommender systems, designing front-end web and native mobile UI, engineering next generation e-commerce mobile services, optimising logistics and supply chain automation, evolving DevOps/SRE and cloud capability, amongst other things.
