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Apple is bringing on board John Browett as senior vice president of Retail, reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Browett comes to Apple from European technology retailer Dixons Retail, where he has been CEO since 2007. His start date at the company is the beginning of April.
Browett, not surprisingly, has an impressive CV. He’s held a series of executive positions at Tesco plc including CEO of Tesco.com. He’s been a consultant with Boston Consulting Group. He holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Wharton Business School.
He follows, again not surprisingly, someone with an equally impressive background: Ron Johnson, now the chief executive of J.C. Penney. Before his 11-year tenure at Apple, Johnson was at Target. While at Apple he introduced the concept of the Apple Store—it had its ten-year anniversary last year—and other innovations such as The Genius Bar.
Under Johnson’s time at Apple, the company’s retail stores:
- Expanded to 11 countries on four continents;
- Began posting $9.9 million from each store on an annual basis, on average;
- Pushed into China—no mean feat—with grand success. Apple’s four relatively new stores in China now account for 10 percent of Apple's total revenue.
- Attracted around 300 million people to its stores worldwide over the last 12 months.
Little wonder that Apple fanboys, shareholders and retailers alike will be watching closely what Browett will do.
No doubt he will continue to expand Apple into China, as well as elsewhere in the world. Russia, Central and South America are markets that many expect to see Apple enter or expand. More stores will open in the U.S. too—the laws of supply (as in there are too many stores in the U.S.) don’t seem to apply to Apple. At all.
Just as interesting to watch, though, will be the impact Apple will have on retailing in general under new leadership.
It will be a subtle influence to be sure—for the most part, stores are made or broken depending on a number of factors not the least of which are their own retailing savvy. Sears is closing a number of stores this year and a ho hum retail concept is one of the reasons why, many believe.
But there is something about Apple that inspires mimicry in all aspects of its business. Last year, for instance, Microsoft announced it would open 75 new Microsoft stores in the next two to three years, in large part to challenge, or try to at least, Apple, in the bricks-and-mortar world.
