The hunt for a Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) for Shoppers Stop Pvt Ltd, one of the country’s oldest department stores, has come to an end after the previous MD & CEO Rajiv Suri announced stepping down effective 25 August for personal reasons and to peruse a career outside India. Today, Shoppers Stop announced the appointment of Mr Venugopal G Nair as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer effective November 6, 2020.
Shoppers Stop has reported a loss in September 2020 quarter and the quarter prior to that due to losses made at operating level, losses from the subsidiary Crossword Bookstores and the COVID-19 lockdown. In June, Shoppers Stop had announced laying off of 1,100 staff and shutting down the underperforming stores.
Shoppers Stop has also approved the fundraising of up to Rs 300 crores through the issuance of equity shares of the face value of Rs. 5 each of the Company, on a rights issue basis.
The Chairman of the Company, Mr BS Nagesh said that “I am delighted to welcome Venu as Managing Director and CEO. Venu has an exceptional leadership track record, strong international exposure, deep strategic expertise, and proven experience of driving transformation and managing technological disruption, which is the need of the hour. We believe that Venu is the right person to lead Shoppers in this critical phase and its next phase of growth.”
Venu Nair, brings in an experience of 27 years. He has been in the Retail & Apparel Industry across South Asia & Europe. He is currently the CEO of Westside at Trent Limited. Before joining Westside, Venu was the MD of Marks & Spencer Reliance Pvt. Ltd. Prior to that he has worked with Marks & Spencer Plc, Madura Garments and Arvind Mills.
Venu is a Bachelor of Technology (Hon) from NIT, Calicut and an MBA in Marketing from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) , Mumbai.
Shopper Stop operates 88 department stores in 44 Cities. The company also operates premium home concept stores (11 Stores), 135 Specialty Beauty stores of M.A.C, Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Smash box, Jo Malone and Arcelia, occupying an area of 4.5M sq. ft.