Sarah Kemp reflects on ‘most interesting and challenging work of my career’ as she departs Frasers Group

Sarah Kemp has left Frasers Group, best known for its Sports Direct brand, where she held the position of Group Head of Business Transformation.

Kemp had worked for the retailer for four years, having joined from Baringa Partners.

In a LInkedIn post, she said: “Four years ago we were heading for a second lockdown and I took a chance - leaving a successful, stable consulting job to move into retail - at a time where retailers were floundering and stores were shut.”

“Looking back now I think I must have been temporarily insane but I trusted Jack Dowling (Director of Transformation & Operations at Post Office) and Christopher Cooke’s (VP Operations North America at Everlast) recommendation and it was the best decision I could have made.”

She added: “In the last four years I have worked on the most interesting and challenging work of my career so far and been stretched beyond my limits. Michael Murray’s (CEO at Frasers Group) elevation strategy has been a truly exciting thing to be a part of - taking the business from purely Sports Direct to Frasers Group and elevating the experience, the stores and the brands within the group.”

Highlights include:

- Retail restructure and employee development - giving people more opportunity to move and grow within the retail teams.

- RFID technology roll-out into Flannels stores supported by SML Group - “one of the only retailers making this technology work for a multi brand environment with different tags from different brands and factories”.

- Developing the customer services offering - based on principles of operational excellence and lean thinking (delivered in partnership with Baringa).

“Seeing the staff engage with their own personal development and improved career paths. Starting the first customer services conference - improving engagement and communication with teams so they know their part to play alongside the accelerated digital growth.”

- Flannels Personal Shopping - seeing the offering go from strength to strength and digital shopping taking off supported by RedAnt and Appointedd.

- Being a part of the digital transformation work led by David Clark (Chief Customer Officer at Frasers Group) and team.

- Developing a business transformation function, building out a multi disciplined team - and having a long list of departments requesting support to develop their functions and deliver new innovative offerings

Kemp concluded: “This journey has been transformative for me both personally and professionally, thank you to everyone that I’ve met and worked alongside.”

“Thanks in particular to David Al-Mudallal (COO at Frasers Group). I’m going to take a break, the first big break in ten years - and come back ready for my next challenge. Keep in touch!”

USC

USC has become the first brand within Frasers Group to transition to its overhauled digital platform in the UK, built using MACH principles on a commercetools-based architecture.

In a LinkedIn post, Frasers Group said: “The new site focuses on delivering a consumer centric experience for shoppers, featuring hyper-personalisation and best-in-class product discoverability.”

“We are building one of the most modern and advanced e-commerce ecosystems in retail that not only future-proofs the business but delivers an unmatched shopping experience for consumers.”

Clark added: “It’s an important milestone in our digital transformation journey as the first UK fascia to be built not only on the new tech, but in a truly customer centric, product driven way.”

“This allows us to build great experiences for our customers, and also gives our digital teams the best tools to do their jobs due to our strategic partnerships with Algolia, Amplience, Optimizely, Emarsys, XCM, commercetools. Well done to all involved. There’s more to come very soon. We’re building the future of retail.”