Debenhams hands reins to bookmaker chairman

DEPARTMENT store chain Debenhams yesterday unveiled the successor as chairman to retail sector doyen John Lovering, who is stepping down after seven years.

Nigel Northridge, 53, who joined the Debenhams board on 1 January this year, is currently chairman of bookmaker Paddy Power and senior independent non-executive director at Glasgow-based power equipment group, Aggreko.

Northridge also spent 32 years with tobacco giant Gallaher in sales and marketing before becoming chief executive in 2000, and he takes up his new role in April.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He oversaw the sale of Gallaher – maker of Benson & Hedges – to Japan Tobacco for 9.4 billion in 2007. He is also a non-executive director of holiday giant Thomas Cook and car trader Inchcape.

Rob Templeman, Debenhams' chief executive, said he was delighted that Northridge – "an outstanding candidate" – had accepted the role of chairman.

He said: "Nigel has a wealth of experience in a number of businesses and industries which will be a major resource for the company."

Northridge said he looked forward to playing his part at "this great British retailer" which "has performed well during the recession, growing profits and market share and restructuring its balance sheet".

Lovering is expected imminently to become chairman of Mitchells & Butlers, the pubs group where there was a successful putsch by disgruntled shareholders this week to install him as one of four new non-executive directors.

Templeman thanked Lovering for his "wise counsel over the years", and said he had been "a real asset to the business".

Lovering was part of the private equity consortium that bought Debenhams in 2003, and floated the company back on the stock market three years later, saddled with 1 billion of debt.

Investors lost out as the shares plummeted and the deal became a byword for the controversial high-leverage buyouts of the boom years before the credit crunch struck in 2007.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The company's shares closed down 0.15p at 67.5p – compared with a flotation price of 195p.

Debenhams raised 323 million to cut its debt pile last year, and grew Christmas profits for the second year in a row.

One analyst said: "Northridge looks a pretty decent appointment.

"He has obviously been around the block, and it's also good for Debenhams that he has worked extensively in industries that have to have a strong instinctive feel for the consumer, from tobacco and bookmaking to holidays and cars."

Department store groups are seen as having been badly hit by the downturn as consumers have reined in spending on big-ticket items like furniture.