Matalan appoints former Co-op Customer Director in new lead role

Value fashion and homeware retailer Matalan has appointed former Customer Director of Co-op, Ali Jones, into the new role of Chief Customer and Omni-Channel Officer, starting 19 April 2023.

She follows in the footsteps of former CEO of Co-op Food, Jo Whitfield, who joined Matalan as CEO last month.

Jones’s initial focus will be establishing a new customer function within Matalan to “connect all customer touchpoints and provide further clarity and accountability” for customers.

Matalan’s marketing, e-commerce and international teams will sit within the customer and omni-channel function, creating one dedicated team.

Jones joins Matalan with an extensive retail background, with the majority of her career spent in customer centric strategic roles at executive level. For the past five years, since 2018, she has been Customer Director at Co-op.

She has also previously held senior brand, omni-channel and marketing roles at Woolworths Australia, M&S, Next and Arcadia Group. Most noticeably, she was Marketing Director at Debenhams for almost 11 years from August 1999 to May 2010.

At the end of March 2023, Matalan announced it had appointed former Lidl CEO Karl-Heinz Holland as its new Chair while Jo Whitfield, former CEO at Co-op Food, was named as Matalan’s CEO, following the takeover of the value fashion giant by its former lenders, including Invesco and Man GLG.

On Jones’s appointment, Whitfield said: “I am really excited about the opportunity that this appointment will give us, building on the great foundations and plans already in place. Working closely with Ali and her team, we will build a connected strategy and stronger brand experience, however our customers choose to shop with Matalan.”

Jones commented: “I am both excited and honoured to be joining such a great brand and look forward to working again with Jo and with Karl-Heinz and the wider team at Matalan.

“There is no doubt that Matalan’s value proposition is ever more important to customers in the current inflationary environment, and I believe there is a great opportunity to transform the customer journey and bring more consumers to Matalan, more often, via a seamless omni-channel experience.”