Jones Bootmaker and Brantano appoint new chairman as CEO departs

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Sep 6, 2016

UK retailers Jones Bootmaker and Brantano announced on Tuesday that David Short, CEO, is to step down from the role in October 2016.

Short became chief executive of the retail brands in October 2015, after they were sold by Dutch parent company Macintosh, where he served as UK country director. During this time, David Short led the restructuring of the group and created a solid platform for growth.

The companies, now owned by Alteri Investors, also announced the appointment of retail veteran David Riddiford as new Executive Chairman. He has held numerous senior managerial roles over the last thirty years including Global CEO of Links of London, CEO of Ireland’s largest department store Arnotts, and President of Lane Crawford, Asia’s iconic luxury department store.  Most recently, he served as UK CEO for the Danish jewellery company Trollbeads.

The past few months have seen a series of key hires at Jones Bootmaker and Brantano, including the appointment of Ben Harness to the newly created role of Director of Multi-Channel and Neil Holden as the new Head of IT.

In June, former Dorothy Perkins Buying Director Sarah Davies joined Jones Bootmaker as Chief Product Officer and the footwear brand appointed former Arcadia Buying Director Barbara Lucas as Head of Design in May. They will work closely with Retail Operations Director Dan Shaw to relaunch the Jones Bootmaker brand later this year. 

Brantano’s development will be driven separately by Chief Product Officer Simon Cook and Retail Operations Director Karen Staton, said the brand.

Additionally, the companies recently moved their joint head offices to Hinckley and outsourced warehousing and store deliveries to DHL.