Wagamama has appointed former Morrisons, BP and Lidl marketer Claire Farrant as its CMO.

The role was previously held by Emma Colquhoun, who was chief marketing and commercial officer at the restaurant chain between March and December last year. Colquhoun has departed the brand to join Wingstop in a newly created chief growth officer role. Farrant thanked her for having laid “brilliant foundations” during her time in the Wagamama job.

Prior to Colquhoun’s time leading the brand, Kay Bartlett, now CMO at Stonegate Group, held the role of CMO from 2022.

Farrant takes on the top Wagamama marketing role, having departed Morrisons last year. She spent two months in the marketing director role before leaving for personal reasons.

Prior to that she worked at oil giant BP, where she was vice-president of marketing for its retail division for Europe from late 2023.

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Farrant brings significant retail experience to Wagamama, having previously spent eight years as marketing director for Lidl UK. This period saw the discount supermarket grow its share of the UK category markedly.

Before that, she worked at the UK’s biggest retail brand Tesco for almost 10 years in various commercial, advertising and marketing roles.

Farrant commented that Wagamama is currently seeing “huge momentum” as a brand. She has been tasked with building “even greater brand buzz and food love, strengthening salience, deepening connections with our guests and driving meaningful impact”, she said, writing on LinkedIn.