JD Sports names former B&Q executive as CEO

JD Sports

A former B&Q executive has been announced at the new CEO of JD Sports, Britain’s biggest sportswear retailer.

Following an extensive executive global search process, Régis Schultz will take the helpm at the Bury-headquartered company in September.

Interim CEO Kath Smith will return to her former role as senior independent director on the board.

The new chief will join JD Sports from Al-Futtaim Group, a Dubai-based conglomerate which operates a substantial retail business spanning the Middle East and Asia and he The retail division has helped to launch and build world class brands, including Zara, IKEA, Hugo Boss, M&S and Lacoste and operates in Middle East, Asia and North Africa.

Regis Schultz

Mr Schultz held several senior jobs at B&Q, which is part of the FTSE-100 retailer Kingfisher, and also ran Monoprix, the French supermarket chain.

Andrew Higginson, Non-Executive Chair of JD, said: “The Board has taken this opportunity to conduct a truly global search to find the right candidate to lead JD on the next stage in its development.

“Régis brings exactly the characteristics we were looking for.  He is a retailer through and through with experience across all types of retail formats.

“He has also delivered transformational change through digitisation in a number of his roles. Finally, he has significant international experience which will be very important as he works with myself and our senior team to execute on our growth strategy. We very much look forward to Régis joining us.”

Régis Schultz, CEO elect of JD, added: “JD has consistently proven itself to be one of the most successful operators of multi-brand retail formats in the world. We are committed to going deeper in the international development of our brands applying our experience and executional expertise and further enhancing our market leading multi-channel customer experience.

“I am very excited to be joining the Group and look forward to working with the team to deliver on the growth opportunities.”

The appointment comes just a a day after JD Sports announced it has agreed a deal to sell Footasylum to the German asset management firm Aurelius Group after it was finally forced to offload the trainer chain by the UK’s competition watchdog.

The retail giant sold its smaller rival for £37.5m, less than half the £90m price it originally paid in 2019.

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