Holland & Barrett operator NBTY Europe has made three senior buying and e-commerce hires, as marketing boss Phil Geary leaves for Mumsnet rival Bounty.

The health retailer has recruited Shop Direct’s e-commerce chief Neal Preece to the new role of e-commerce director.

The arrival of Preece, who held a similar position at Next, coincides with a multimillion-pound revamp of Holland & Barrett’s IT systems and website. It is due to relaunch its e-commerce site this summer.

“In the rapidly changing world of e-commerce, we must have a rigorous and relentless focus and strive to continually do more, which Neal will help us drive,” said NBTY Europe CEO Peter Aldis.

Preece will report into NBTY Europe’s chief marketing officer Lysa Hardy.

Holland & Barrett has also made a number of changes in its buying department. The senior movers include Ian Mackie, who joins from Fresh Direct to head up the food category, and Sam Cordwell, who is promoted to head of the vitamins, minerals and supplements category.

Meanwhile, Geary, who was marketing director of Holland & Barrett from 2000 and then parent group NBTY Europe from 2008, has left to become marketing director at Bounty.

When Hardy was recruited from RAC last year, Geary took on the role of brand and retail marketing director.

Holland & Barrett reported a 30% increase in pre-tax profits to £74.4m on sales up 9% to £335.3m in the year to 30 September 2012, according to results made available at Companies House this week.

Holland & Barrett has recently lost share to the supermarkets in the vitamin, minerals and supplements category. As revealed in The Grocer this week (see pxx), its share dipped 1.2% points and is worth £4.65m. [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 17 March].

NBTY Europe also owns sports nutrition retailer GNC in the UK and the health food retailers De Tunen and Essenza in the Netherlands and Belgium.

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