John Browett, the former Dixons boss who was ousted from Apple after six months, is stepping down from Monsoon, the fashion chain he joined two years ago.
Monsoon said Browett was stepping down as chief executive to pursue other career opportunities, and that Paul Allen, currently finance director, would step in as interim boss.
Peter Simon, founder and majority owner of the retail group which also owns the Accessorize chain, said: “We are fortunate to have such a strong leader in Paul, who has a broad experience of retail, international and e-commerce operations, all of which are integral to our growth. We would like to thank John for his hard work over the past two years and his success in building a strong team to take the business forward.”
Browett was a high flyer at Tesco before leaving to head up Dixons where he is credited with kicking off a turnaround at the PC World and Currys chains. He was poached to head up Apple’s retail division in 2012 but only six months later he was ousted by the technology group’s boss Tim Cook. Staff apparently disliked his efforts to make them more profit-driven rather than simply focusing on customer service.
Browett is thought to be in discussions with a number of other retailers about a potential new career move. He is not in line to replace Dalton Philips, the chief executive of Morrisons, who exited earlier this month despite once working alongside the supermarket’s new chairman Andy Higginson at Tesco.
His exit from Monsoon comes after a difficult few months at the fashion chain which is understood to have suffered along with other clothing retailers because of warm autumn weather which depressed sales of winter knitwear and coats.
