Toys“R”Us names new CEO

Toys“R”Us has today announced the appointment of Penny Cox as Chief Executive Officer. She joins the company off the back of a four year tenure as VP Commercial & Marketing at Redmart. Her international career includes roles in the UK, Australia, and South East Asia with LEK Consulting, Ocado, Coles, Redmart, Alibaba & Carousell. Under her leadership at Redmart, Revenue grew 20x from $14 million to $285 million per annum. The assortment offering increased by 25x via adoption of partner drop shipping. Net Commercial Margin improvement of 4ppts were delivered through improvements to category management, merchandising, supplier terms, enhanced pricing and promotion, and range management.

“I am grateful to the TOY Board of Directors for their confidence in me, I’m excited to join the business,” said Penny Cox. “I have been very impressed by the infrastructure and business fundamentals that the organisation has built in a relatively short period. I look forward to building on this strong foundation and leading the acceleration of TOY’s growth in the years ahead, enriching more people’s lives through toys and hobbies.”

She is expected to join Toys”R”Us formally as CEO on 7 August but will become involved in key IT projects as a consultant from 19 June.

According to today’s announcement, her strong proven capability and background in scaling ecommerce businesses, have specific applicability to the next chapter of Toys R Us ANZ’s expansion.

The appointment of a new CEO is one of the steps in the seven-step Strategic Plan announced in March. The steps include: a cost reduction of $4 million in 2023, the release of $1 million of previously secured working capital, increased debt facilities of $5 million in new funds, investment in deeper Australia and UK retail and ecommerce leadership, improvement in Australia and UK margin and marketing support from its suppliers, board renewal to deliver deeper sector and international market, governance and fund-raising capabilities; and a focus on brand building, increasing the visibility and awareness of Toys“R”Us in licensed territories.

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