Teal Group, the company behind toy retailers The Entertainer and Addo Play, has appointed former Merlin and John Lewis executive Craig Inglis as group chief customer officer to unify its approach to customers, brand and marketing across the organisation.
Inglis, who has been working as a strategic adviser to the toy retailer since April, will join the board and be responsible for leading all customer, marketing, licensing and brand building activity across both brands.
This will include developing strategic partnerships with global licensors and product brands, as well as ensuring the market impact of the group’s proprietary brands, including Meccano, Early Learning Centre and Snuggle Buddies.
The Entertainer director of digital and marketing Malcolm Carter will report to Inglis and will focus on transforming the group’s digital capabilities, alongside his marketing, PR and customer insight responsibilities.
Inglis started his career at Thomson Holidays in 1992 as a product manager and then spent a decade as sales and marketing director at Virgin Trains before joining John Lewis as head of brand communications. After three years he was promoted to marketing director, eventually taking on the role of customer director in 2015.
In 2022, he quit John Lewis to join Sage as executive vice-president before switching to Merlin Entertainments where he became the company’s first chief customer officer. However, he left in November last year to set up his own independent consultancy focused on supporting businesses and investors, specialising in customer, digital, marketing and brand strategy.
Teal Group Holdings group chief executive Andrew Murphy said: “After a period of significant change and much hard work from teams across the business, we have earned the opportunity to invest more deeply in our understanding of our customers, the strength of our channel propositions and in elevating our brands.
“Craig is a hugely accomplished customer, marketing and brand leader and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to secure him as part of the team navigating the business through this new era and our next phase of growth.”
Inglis said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be joining The Entertainer. Having worked closely with the business over the past few months, I’ve seen first-hand the energy and ambition across the team, and I’m hugely excited about the opportunity we have to build on that.
“At the heart of it is play. We have an incredible opportunity not only to understand and serve our customers better, but to champion the importance of play and bring more of it into people’s everyday lives – from building distinctive brands and experiences to creating exciting new partnerships and finding new ways to connect with customers.”
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