BP lures Lidl chief to lead Euro retail marketing drive

BP has poached Lidl marketing chief Claire Farrant, credited with playing a crucial role in expanding the retailer’s market share in the UK, to lead its retail business in Europe as vice-president of marketing.

Reporting to Tracey Clements, senior vice-president of mobility and convenience retail Europe, Farrant will, according to BP, “lead the evolution of a transformative marketing strategy to drive growth”.

This will be achieved by focusing on “enhancing customer engagement, loyalty and digital transformation across BP’s European retail business, while embracing strategic partnerships for sustained growth”.

Convenience retail is one of BP’s five strategic transition “growth engines”, along with EV charging, hydrogen, bioenergy, and renewables and power. These are the areas the company is investing in to help accelerate its transition into an integrated energy business.

Between 2023-2030 BP aims for around half of its cumulative $55bn to $65bn transition growth engine investment to go into convenience, bioenergy and EV charging. By 2030, it is aiming to double convenience gross margin, with 10% year on year growth, and increase the number of strategic convenience sites globally to more than 3,500.

Starting her career in 2001 as a marketing manager at Kerry Foods, Farrant first moved to Woolworths and then to Tesco in 2005 where she spent nearly a decade in marketing and commercial roles.

She joined Lidl in 2015 as marketing director, contributing to the retailer’s impressive market share growth and move into the UK’s “big six” supermarkets.

While there, Farrant’s role involved streamlining brand consistency and optimising marketing costs across 32 markets, launching and leading the marketing strategy for Lidl’s own reward programme Lidl Plus, while developing talent and growth in her team, which she is passionate about.

Farrant’s appointment is part of a wider drive by BP to invest in its convenience retail proposition, which includes the recent appointment of Joanne Hall from Sainsbury’s as its UK retail operations director and Teresa Lindley from Waitrose as UK trading director.

Clements said: “Claire’s exceptional leadership and proven track record of driving growth in the competitive supermarket sector make her a valuable addition to our team. Her arrival comes at a pivotal moment as we evolve our marketing strategy to align our convenience retail offering with changing consumer behaviour on the roadside.”

Clements added: “I’m looking forward to working closely with the team to develop and implement a strong marketing strategy across our nine European markets. We’re putting the customer at the very heart of everything we do, focusing on growing our brilliant loyalty programmes and delivering an outstanding, convenient retail experience.”