Waitrose has promoted Christian Haas to the newly created role of head of category management.
Haas took up the post in August, having spent three-and-a-half years as head of commercial operations. The move comes at an important time in the retailer’s strategy, with Waitrose having kicked off a major range review across 30 categories this summer using consultants from OC&C.
A Waitrose spokeswoman said the reviews were being carried out by the relevant commercial teams but that Haas would be “guiding them and supporting them through this process - and ensuring the customer is at the heart of decisions made.”
Read more: Waitrose becomes latest retailer to hit the reset button
He will report to Sam Dickson, Waitrose head of commercial strategy and change.
Haas described his new job on Linkedin in as ‘developing the over-arching one to three-year category strategy across all commercial levers (price, promotions, range, own-label, in-novation, product presentation and clustering)’.
The spokeswoman said he was also responsible for ensuring Waitrose’s buying decisions are consistently driven by customers’ needs.
In his commercial operations role, Haas’ duties included accountability for Waitrose’s pricing and promotional strategy, legal compliance and commercial budget control.
He joined the retailer in February 2003 as a buyer for small electrical appliances and toys, before becoming central buyer for seasonal, home and media, and head of buying for home and leisure.
Before Waitrose, Haas was a video games software buyer at eToys, and a video games buyer at Toys R Us.
This week, Waitrose’s parent John Lewis Partnership unveiled a new corporate branding with its retail brands re-named Waitrose & Partners and John Lewis & Partners respectively.
No comments yet