The Cheeky Panda has hired David Carter as COO.
Carter’s former employers include Body Shop, Burberry and World of Books, where he was director of operations.
Cheeky Panda CEO Julie Chen said Carter had “been there and got the T-shirt in several scale-ups” and “demonstrates excellent leadership and his approach to world-class operations, customer service and manufacturing across multiple geographies”. He was “exactly what we were looking for in a COO to take us to the next level”.
His appointment comes as the brand has grown significantly over recent years, from sales of £100k in 2017 to £11m in 2021, it said. It claims to have sold over 12 million products in over 25 markets including Europe, the US and the Middle East.
Carter said the brand offered “exciting opportunities with significant growth potential both in the UK and internationally, while meeting my desire to work for an environmentally conscious and forward-thinking innovative business”.
The news comes after the brand pulled in £2.85m from investors in a crowdfunding push earlier this year from 2,002 investors. Prior to that it had raised £7m from over 4,000 investors across three campaigns.
The business is eventually planning to launch an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Co-founder Chris Forbes has previously said he expected sales to top £1bn by 2035.
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