Dixons Retail CEO John Browett will become Apple's new SVP of retail

Apple announced on Monday that John Browett will join the company as its new Senior Vice President of Retail. Browett will replace Ron Johnson, who left Apple last year to become the CEO of retailer JC Penney. Browett will leave his current position as CEO of British electronics retailer Dixons to join Apple in April.

Browett will be responsible for Apple's retail strategy going forward and will oversee the company's global expansion in the retail sector. Apple currently operates 361 stores around the world and has seen phenomenal growth over the last year. Apple's average revenue per retail store was US$17.1 million during Q4 2011, which was a 43 percent increase from $12.1 million a year ago. Apple stores also had 110 million visitors in 2011.

Thanks to Daniel Cooper for the heads-up.

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John Browett Joins Apple as Senior Vice President of Retail

CUPERTINO, California-January 30, 2012-Apple® today announced that John Browett will join the company as senior vice president of Retail, reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Browett comes to Apple from European technology retailer Dixons Retail, where he has been CEO since 2007. Beginning in April, he will be responsible for Apple's retail strategy and the continued expansion of Apple retail stores around the world.

"Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we've met," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple."

Prior to joining Dixons Retail, Browett held a series of executive positions at Tesco plc including CEO of Tesco.com. Earlier in his career he advised retail and consumer goods clients at Boston Consulting Group. He holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Wharton Business School.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

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Apple announced on Monday that John Browett will join the company as its new Senior Vice President of Retail. Browett will replace Ron...

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Stuart Bell

Actually the shops are no longer called Dixons, because they had such a bad reputation for customer service and mis-selling warranties. So they changed the name to Curry's Digital. Still have a c*** reputation.

This is like the Savoy Hotel in London appointing the boss of RyanAir to head-up its customer service department.

It's like Rolls Royce appointing the head of Trabant (wiki is your friend) to run its retail division.

It beggars belief that anyone in Apple could think he can bring anything to the company.

Has any member of the Apple board ever entered a store in the Dixons group?

January 31 2012 at 12:11 PM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Stuart Bell's comment

sip

Actually, Dixons is still active, but it doesn't have brick & mortar stores and has fashioned itself as business oriented, as opposed to Currys focus on the ordinary Jane & Joe off the street.

Then there's pcworld, which partnered with Apple to sell products within pcworld stores, which did an awful job because all the sales staff were interested in commission from selling low-end WinPCs with dodgy extended warranties. I used to have lots of fun going into pcworld stores on my travels, running movie trailers in QT on iMacs at full volume then walking away -- used to attract big crowds.

Just visit pcworld.co.uk; dixons.co.uk & currys.co.uk -- the websits are identical except for the colour schemes. Best deals I took advantage of:

Dixons -- Nikon AFS 60mm Micro lens for £100 less then the best price I could find elsewhere;
pcworld -- 1TB WD external Elements HD for £45 so I bought five, took the HD out of the cases and stuck them in my Mac Pro.

January 31 2012 at 3:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to sip's comment

sip

Forgot the point of my previous post: I just hope this guy wasn't with the Dixons group when it started going downhill.

The other thing we need to bear in mind is that a lot of UK businesses were following the lead of the US and were downsizing their operations, and that must have had some negative impact.

My nephew worked for Dixons before UK minimum wage laws were brought in and something like 75% - 80% of his weekly earnings (couldn't call it a wage or salary) was made up of commission. Needless to say he soon quit and now runs his own business.

January 31 2012 at 3:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down