Shop Direct accelerating luxury offering with new hire

Shop Direct, which owns Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com and Isme.com, has appointed My-Wardrobe.com co-founder Sarah Curran as a director to “accelerate” the development of its luxury offering in branded fashion and beauty. Curran,

who joins the retail group on December 16, will work across all Shop Direct’s brands and will report to group retail and strategy director Gareth Jones. In her new role, she will be responsible for enticing luxury brands to sell their goods on their online sites to help it complete with the likes of My-Wardrobe and Net-a-Porter.

These new brands will sit alongside Shop Direct’s current offering, which includes the likes of GHD, Hunter, Lipsy, Ted Baker and UGG, and the recent additions of Radley and Hugo Boss. Fashion and beauty is an important market for Shop Direct as it currently accounts for around 50 percent of the business and generates annual sales of 1.7 billion pounds.

Sarah Curran to spearhead Shop Direct’s luxury offering

Commenting on the appointment, Jones said: “At Shop Direct, we sell a wide range of more than 800 famous brands and bring new labels on board every year to meet customer demand, in line with our purpose to make good things easily accessible to more people.

“Our customers consistently tell us that they want to be able to shop a wider range of brands, particularly at the luxury end of the market. We’re delighted that Sarah has agreed to join us to further develop our strategy in this area.”

It has also been reported by Drapers that Curran will also be working on a spin-off luxury fascia for the Very brand, with the working name ‘Very Exclusive’, although it is thought that this at the very early stages of development.

Curran added: “When I launched My-Wardrobe back in 2006, my ambition was to democratise luxury by bringing fantastic brands to as wide an audience as possible. With its strong fashion and beauty credentials and the ability it offers customers to spread the cost of their purchases, Shop Direct takes that ethos to the next level.

“The business offers a fantastic range of aspirational brands and there’s a huge opportunity to do more. I look forward to working with the team to further expand the offering in the luxury fashion and beauty arena.”

Curran, who received an MBE this summer for her services to fashion, left My-Wardrobe in July to pursue other “retail projects”, although she stepped down as chief executive in 2011. She founded the online fashion company with her former husband Andrew Curran in 2006.

Image: Sarah Curran