Daniel Brown has stepped up to take over the role of chief executive at Beaverbrooks as previous chief executive Mark Addlestone becomes chairman replacing Andrew Brown who will remain a director.
Brown, who is a fourth-generation member of the Beaverbrooks family, was previously operations director at the 64-store chain. He joined the family business in 1995 and has worked in every department of the company from the shop floor to the buying team.
Upon taking over the chief executive role, Brown has promised some radical changes at Beaverbrooks with an eight-year development plan. He said he intends for the business to become a “better employer, more profitable, and able to do more for our community” by focusing on staff training, in-store experience and customer service” to create a “world-class shopping experience” by 2020.
Brown said: “We’re now going through the biggest cultural change we’ve seen yet for our business and our brand. We want to completely change the consumer’s experience of shopping at Beaverbrooks.
“A lot of retailers claim to focus on customer service but they don’t actually end up doing anything to change. We have a better-than-most reputation for good customer service, but we can do a lot better, and we’re at the beginning of that journey.”
Brown cites stores such as Disney, Apple and John Lewis as setting the bar for the type of experience and service that he hopes to introduce to Beaverbrooks. He added that Beaverbrooks will set its standards by US retail’s customer service standards.
He added: “Buying jewellery can sometimes be quite an intimidating experience so we want to create a warmer, friendlier environment in stores to put our customers completely at ease. But that’s just the start – ultimately, we want to be doing something quite incredible. My aim is to completely astonish customers on a regular basis.”
“But service in this country is, in my opinion, quite poor, so I tend to favour the American retail model which is much more customer-focussed. If we can create mind-blowing experiences for our customers, then we’re setting the benchmark for raising retail standards in the UK by showing people how it should be.
