Another senior executive appears to have left Big W days after the CEO of the business announced he was taking a new job in the education market.
Former Big W GM of marketing Kristen Linders is now listing herself as a consultant on her LinkedIn profile, she also lists that she worked for the large Woolworths owned department store from July 2017 to July 2022 having previously worked as head of marketing at BWS.
On July 25th ChannelNews exclusively revealed that 12 months after joining Big W CEO Pejman Okhovat was quitting to take up a role in childcare.
Under Okhovat’s watch Big W reported a 9 per cent drop for the last six months of 2021, the business also closed several stores across NSW and Victoria, he joined the business in April 2021.
At this stage it’s not known if the announced exit of Okhovat and the sudden exit of Linders are linked to a restructure of Big W’s operations.
During her tenure at Big W Linders introduced several new marketing initiatives including a Direct to Boot service nationally across 176 stores and switched-on online lay-by.
She also turned Big W’s traditional in-store events into digital propositions.
The retailers famed Toy Mania midnight openings in 35 stores, for example, transitioned to a national online event.
She also delivered a Free Books for Kids program from an in-store only book collection to include a podcast and YouTube readings, giving more families across Australia access to Storytime.
The marketing division also trialled an Everyday market concept that allowed customers to add on to their Woolworths orders a kid’s toy from Big W for upcoming birthday parties.
To facilitate the program Big W claimed that they moved to work with brands to make sure stock was available for customers to shop from early October.
Woolworths is set to announce their yearend results for Big W and Woolworths Stores on 25th of August.
