Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Alexei Cowan has been appointed to the newly created role of head of design for Wilko.
The retailer said: ‘Alexei will establish a dedicated product design capability within Wilko Retail, focusing on trend interpretation and the development of desirable products specifically for Wilko customers.’
With more than 20 years’ experience of developing, designing and launching customer-focused new products for leading brands, Alexei’s last post was identifying and reporting on trends for the trend forecasting company WGSN’s lifestyle & interior team. Prior to that she was group creative director for a lifestyle design group which included brands Perch & Parrow, Gallery Direct and Endon Lighting.
Her previous roles include head of design for Home Retail Group (Sainsbury’s/Argos/Homebase) and senior designer for Next.
She will report to Wilko Retail executive managing director Andrew Moore. He said: “Putting great product at great prices at the centre of everything we do continues to be key to our strategic vision for growth and we’re committed to working harder and faster to deliver even more, desirable products, specifically for them.
“Alexei’s appointment will enable us to establish a stronger, more intuitive product focus through improving our customer offer based on insight and substantially reducing development lead times.”
Alexei added: “I couldn’t be more excited to be joining Wilko. There is a lot of love out there for Wilko brand products and launching customer focused, innovative new products that simply help is my passion.”
Wilko is a family-owned business with 418 stores across the UK. Key product ranges include homeware and furnishings, garden and outdoor lifestyle products, DIY and decorating and health and beauty.
