Cristofoli heads to Otto's Freemans Grattan as chief customer officer

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 26, 2020

Richard Cristofoli is to become the first ever chief customer officer at Freemans Grattan Holdings (FGH), the Otto-owned catalogue-retailer-turned-online-giant.

He’ll be crucial in the operation as the firm works to reinvigorate its business that includes the Freemans and Grattan webstores as well as value retailer Bonprix and plus-size webstore Curvissa.

Cristofoli left Debenhams last autumn as part of leadership shake-up. He had been managing director of beauty, beauty services and marketing since 2017, when the firm had promoted him as part of a major restructuring.

He was credited with launching the new Beauty Hall of the Future concept that focused heavily on experiential retail.

In his new role at Freemans Grattan, he’ll work with CEO Ann Steer, Retail Week reported. She joined the firm in 2019 having been chief customer officer at N Brown, so having done the job herself elsewhere, she clearly sees the new CCO role as an important one for the business.

She said the company is reshaping its business and highlighted Cristofoli’s “excellent retail pedigree and extensive experience across many sectors and categories”.

She said he’ll work with her to shape the strategy, develop the brands, build the firm’s marketing and digital capability (80% of its sales currently happen online but that should rise), and drive change.

Interestingly, the new CCO will also meet up again with his ex-boss Sergio Bucher. He had been ousted as Debenhams CEO and is now on the Otto Group board.