jo french

Jo French has been appointed the new marketing director of Budgens after joining from fashion group Monsoon Accessorize.

French replaces Anna Burleigh who is taking a break over the summer before considering any new opportunities. French will be part of the Budgens leadership team, reporting to Budgens director Mike Baker.

She spent three and a half years at Monsoon Accessorize, most recently as head of e-commerce & loyalty, where she was responsible for the online customer offer, digital marketing, social media, customer research and the Monsoon reward card loyalty scheme.

Prior to that, French held other senior retail roles, including head of marketing planning, product & trade at New Look, and she spent six and a half years at The Body Shop, where she worked up from product category manager for gifts and accessories to UK product category director.

In her new role, French will oversee all marketing activity including brand and new proposition development, in-store visuals and PoS, seasonal and promotional planning, PR, social media and digital campaigns. “I am really pleased to be joining at an exciting time. I have a real passion for retail and look forward to further developing the brand,” she said.

Budgens director Mike Baker said: “We are delighted to welcome Jo to the Budgens team; she brings a great deal of retail experience and will play a crucial part in bringing our new brand proposition to life.”

Last month Booker bought the Budgens and Londis operations from Musgrave Group for £40m. Despite introducing a number of turnaround plans for Budgens and Londis, Musgrave said the combined symbol operations made a loss of £7.1m in 2014.