Josh Ong
Browett had served as CEO at his former company since 2007. Prior to that, he was CEO of Tesco.com. He holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Wharton Business School.
“Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,†Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. “We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple.â€
Browett takes over for Apple's former head of retail Ron Johnson. Johnson was instrumental in the formation of the company's retail business and spent more than 10 years at its helm before stepping down to join retailer JC Penney as CEO last November. After assembling a team that included former Apple alumni, Johnson outed JC Penney's new strategy last week with an Apple-like full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal.
John Browett, Apple's new SVP of Retail. | Credit: Dixons
Apple was reported to have engaged a global recruitment firm last summer to help it search for a new retail executive with international experience. The company's retail business has skewed toward international locations in recent years. Apple revealed last fall that 75 percent of its retail stores set to open during the December quarter would be outside of the U.S.
Looking ahead, Apple is set to open new store-within-a-store outlets at select Target locations in the U.S. For an in-depth look at Apple's plans for its retail business, see the recent AppleInsider report: The next ten years of Apple Retail.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
AppleInsider Staff
William Gallagher
Oliver Haslam
66 Comments
Strange choice. Shopping at Dixons (and sister store PC World) is a terrible retailing experience.
Strange choice. Shopping at Dixons (and sister store PC World) is a terrible retailing experience.
This was my immediate reaction. Tesco and Dixons? Really? A technology retailer? Will he want to turn the Apple stores into copies of the Microsoft stores? Just doesn't seem like the right fit.
But then, I suppose many might have had misgivings about Ron Johnson coming from Target (although Target has had good advertising and merchandising for years).
I guess we will have to wait and see what this change brings about but I have an ominous feeling that Apple will be looking for a replacement inside a year.
I grew up in the UK seeing Dixons stores in every major town and city centre. The shops were ok with a lot of the latest tech and they were the most popular place to buy electronics until online e-commerce got huge and and people favoured shopping on the internet as product prices became more competitive. That's when Dixons started to decline for me. PC World the same. The stores had atrociously bad customer service with sales guys who didn't really know and understand the products they were selling.
Oh dear. I can't bring myself to say much more than that.
I would echo the previous comments about the shopping experience.
Personally I grew tired of being pestered at every turn because of the salary commission structure used by management.