From CIO to COO to CEO: What New Look’s leadership change says about its new era

For much of the past two years, New Look has frequently appeared in headlines for the wrong reasons. It closed its Irish business, accelerated UK store closures, cut head office jobs, secured a 30 million pound cash injection to fund digital transformation and was reportedly exploring strategic options after unsolicited takeover approaches.

Fast forward 12 months and the picture looks very different. Instead of announcing a new owner or another restructuring programme, New Look has promoted its own chief operating officer, and former chief information officer, to chief executive, shortly after reporting its strongest EBITDA in a decade–36.6 million pounds versus 14.3 million pounds a year earlier–and extending debt maturities to 2029. The question now is; if former head Helen Connolly’s job was saving New Look, what exactly is her successor Lynda Petherick’s?

New Look needs to show an ability to grow in a market of shrinking competitors

While New Look may have seemingly regained stability, the environment surrounding it has arguably become more hostile. Since the start of 2025 and through 2026, the UK has witnessed administrations or major restructurings at Quiz, Claire’s, LK Bennett, River Island, Select Fashion, The Original Factory Shop, Poundland and others. According to the Centre for Retail Research, more than 17,000 stores were forecast to close during 2025, while increased National Insurance contributions, wage inflation and higher business rates continue to tighten margins. In this context, New Look no longer needs to prove it can survive. It instead needs to show an ability to grow while many competitors begin to shrink.

Petherick’s promotion hints at what we could anticipate from New Look in the near future. Historically, fashion CEOs rise up the ranks through buying, merchandising or product. Petherick, on the other hand, boasts a background in technology, operations and enterprise data. The appointment responds to broader shifts among retail, which has become more reliant on loyalty, inventory visibility, pricing and AI-driven personalisation.

These are all areas Petherick has spent the past two years building. In her prior roles, the executive was credited with driving operational improvements and accelerated the integration of data and technology across the business. As a result, New Look “made significant progress in strengthening the business and becoming a faster, more data-led and customer-focused organisation”, Petherick said at the time of her appointment announcement.

While at first glance, this could suggest a digital-first approach for New Look, the wider picture differs. Digital already generates around 40 percent of New Look’s revenue, boosted by investments into its enterprise data platform, omnichannel fulfilment and AI personalisation tools. Simultaneously, the company has amped up its focus on physical retail. Earlier this year, New Look confirmed plans to rollout a new store concept: an “omni-hub format” that offers services like click & collect, e-commerce drop-offs and order-in-store showrooms.

The imperative synergy between digital and physical

The concept was initially introduced last year, and consumers have reportedly responded strongly since. Retail director Mark Matthews said that as a result, the company was “now accelerating the rollout of this format across our estate as we continue to invest in stores that support a more connected, omnichannel customer journey”. Physical retail therefore appears to be supporting digital rather, instead of competing with it.

Doubt still remains, however. While operationally, New Look appears stronger, commercially, the brand proposition could face setbacks. The company remains one of the UK’s leading womenswear retailers, with Kantar market share data placing it among the strongest players in categories including dresses, denim and footwear. It sits, however, within an increasingly difficult middle ground, putting it up against giants like H&M, Primark and Zara, as well as a growing number of resale platforms offering affordable alternatives.

An emphasis must be placed on emotional brand relevance, not just technological integration, and that may become Petherick’s biggest challenge. Across fashion retail, the role of the CEO is expanding beyond traditional commercial expertise, with elements like technology and customer data becoming central. Petherick’s move from CIO to COO to CEO reflects this shift, serving as evidence of a market looking to better understand customers, optimise stock levels and create a more personalised experience.

For New Look, much of that infrastructure is already in place. Its Club New Look loyalty programme has grown beyond one million members, while its Pulse platform offers customer insights, inventory data and pricing support to inform commercial decisions. Expectations will instead fall on how those systems will be converted into meaningful competition and ultimately give customers a reason to choose New Look in an increasingly crowded market.

The appointment of Petherick suggests New Look believes its future will be rooted less on the expansion of its physical footprint or competing purely on speed and price, and more on making smarter commercial decisions through technology, data and customer understanding. Financial recovery has given the business breathing room, while digital transformation has created the foundations for its next chapter.