Asda appoints vice-president for own brand
Asda has appointed a vice president for its own brand, marking chief customer officer Rachel Eyre’s first senior appointment.
Charlotte Rhodes has been appointed as vice-president for own brand at Asda, signalling its next move as it looks to grow its customer function.
Reporting into Asda’s newly appointed chief customer officer, Rachel Eyre, Rhodes will oversee the strengthening of Asda’s own brand product ranges. This is Eyre’s first senior appointment as chief customer officer.
On her appointment, Eyre said Rhodes’ “deep expertise in brand development” will be “important” as Asda looks to “strengthen our own brand ranges to ensure they continue to deliver the quality and value that our customers expect”.
Rhodes will start on 1 December, and brings over 20 years of retail experience, including a decade at Coles in Australia, where she oversaw own brand and quality and sustainable sourcing.
Prior to this, Rhodes worked as business unit director for fresh food at Sainsbury’s.
The appointment follows a flurry of marketing leadership changes within the grocery sector, most recently involving Morrisons where CMO Claire Farrant departed after two months, being replaced by Morrisons’ group customer, data and media director, Matt McLellan.
Turnaround efforts
Rachel Eyre was previously Morrisons CMO, and joined Asda to replace David Hills, who departed for Jet2.
Asda has seen tricky times as of late, being overtaken by Aldi as the UK’s third biggest food and drinks retailer in April. It also saw a tricky Christmas period where, according to Kantar data, the supermarket saw a 5.8% decrease in sales, causing its market share to fall to 12.5%.
To turn things around, it reintroduced Rollback and Asda Price, and its former executive chairman Allan Leighton returned this year to lead turnaround efforts.
Asda’s vice president of marketing, Adam Zavalis, previously told Marketing Week that it’s “not an overnight turnaround”, but the grocer is well positioned going forward.
“All the combinations, from price to availability to our unmatchable mix with George [clothing], gives us a lot more strings to our bow than we’ve had in the last couple of years,” added Zavalis.
In January, he also said the return to Rollback meant customers could trust Asda had returned to its “DNA” and the value message is “for the long term”.
