Pippa Wicks exits John Lewis, Naomi Simcock steps up for now
One of John Lewis
Her replacement on an interim basis is Naomi Simcock, the firm’s retail director. She’s a 12-year veteran of the company and has worked across a variety of roles in both its John Lewis and Waitrose brands. She was previously with M&S
As an executive director, Wicks had a seat on the firm’s board and had overseen key areas including trading, merchandising, marketing, product development and services.
Most notably, under her watch, the venerable Never Knowingly Undersold price-matching promise was ditched as part of the overall revamp of the John Lewis brand that she oversaw, and the successful budget Anyday own-brand was introduced.
She was also in charge recently when the company cut its ties with the ad agency that had been responsible for the firm’s headline-grabbing Christmas ads for over a decade.
Wicks had joined the company from the Co-op in August 2020, at the height of the pandemic.
Partnership chair Sharon
Wickes herself added: “I am proud of the considerable transformational progress the highly talented John Lewis team has made over the past few years, especially given the difficulties caused by the pandemic. It has been a real privilege and honour to work for the partnership and help transform John Lewis which is one of the most respected brands in the country.”
