Andrew Keith, President of Lane Crawford, Asia’s premier specialty fashion retailer, on Tuesday announced two senior management hires for newly created positions that will drive the retailer’s China stores, and global e-commerce expansion, underlining the company’s strategic focus on omni-channel retailing. Andrea O’Donnell will join Lane Crawford as Executive Director commencing 3 September.
In this role, O’Donnell reports directly to Keith and is responsible for merchandising, marketing, store strategy and planning. O’Donnell comes to Lane Crawford from John Lewis in London, where as the Commercial Director she delivered the retailer’s successful multi-channel strategy and opened eight new stores.
Sebastian Picardo will join Lane Crawford as Executive Vice President Business Development & Online on 6 August. In this capacity, he will report directly to Keith and oversee Lane Crawford’s e-commerce business and work with O’Donnell to drive an omni-channel strategy, synergising the retail and online channels in the Greater China region.
Picardo comes to Lane Crawford from Burberry where he most recently served as Managing Director – Digital Commerce based in the London headquarters after transforming and integrating the brand’s Spanish operations into the global business as Managing Director – Operations at Burberry Spain.
"As Asia’s first omni-channel multi-brand fashion retailer, delivering the ultimate in customer experience is at the centre of our strategy. Both Andrea and Sebastian bring extensive knowledge from companies leading the way in omni-channel retailing. Their skills combined with our innovation and Asian market leadership will enable us to deliver a seamless and dynamic retail experience for our customers both in China and globally," Keith said.
The announcement comes on the back of a landmark financial year ending 31 March 2012, in which the retailer booked record-breaking revenue of USD700 million, with comp store growth of 23 percent. Lane Crawford will open a China flagship in Shanghai, its largest at 150,000 square feet in the second half of 2013. It represents a new Lane Crawford store model with integrated technology to enhance customer experiences, an elevated service model and new F&B concepts, creating a complete lifestyle destination. Through continued expansion, the retailer expects to increase its total retail square footage by 35 percent in the next three years.
"With more than 160 years of heritage we are committed to further growing our position as Asia’s leading specialty department store. Our strategic investment in both physical store expansion and e-commerce allows us to broaden the scope of our customer service platform in the rapidly expanding and increasingly sophisticated Chinese market," Keith said.