Kingfisher drafts in Asda chief Simon Jury as new CDO

Kingfisher has raided beleaguered supermarket giant Asda to appoint its new chief data officer, as the B&Q and Screwfix owner ramps up its data-driven approach, including its foray into retail media.

Simon Jury has been Asda’s vice-president data and analytics for the past two years, having spent the bulk of his career at DunnHumby, where he was mosr recently solutions director at its UK operation.

He first joined the company in 2005 and then spent 14 years in China, having co-founded the data and insight giant’s South Asia business. and nearly three years in Latin America.

Prior to that, Jury (pictured) worked as a management consultant at Peppers & Rogers Group, having started his career at Quadstone in 1998.

At Kingfisher, he will succeed Tom Betts, who had been CDO since 2020. Betts quit in July 2024 and is now a non-executive director at The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO), which specialises in marine geospatial data to support safe, secure and thriving oceans. It is an executive agency, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence.

On LinkedIn Jury, described his time at Asda as “exhilarating”, adding: “So much to celebrate in Asda; growing a cross-enterprise analytics function, laying the foundations for a world-leading data ecosystem, suffering the slings and arrows of UK retail.”

Even so, Asda has introduced a series of cost-cutting measures, including redundancies, in what is thought to be just the beginning of job cuts this year, with reports last November of further redundancies to be made in 2025.

At the time, chief information security officer Simon Langley, chief data protection officer Amy Travis, and head of security operations Lianne Potter were all shown the door.

The cost-cutting measures also follow a disastrous festive period for the retailer, which saw the company suffer its worst Christmas since 2015 as sales slumped by 5.8% in the 12 weeks to December 29.

Kingfisher, meanwhile, has seen mixed sales growth across its markets. In the UK and Ireland, sales have increased, but in France sales have declined.

Last summer, B&Q (pictured, top) appointed Rapp UK as part of plans to overhaul how it connects with its audience on a one-to-one basis. The company operates twin loyalty programmes, the B&Q Club for consumers and TradePoint for tradespeople.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher recently joined the retail media stampede with a new B&Q platform allowing third-party brands to advertise across ecommerce websites and apps.

The group already works with Publicis-owned CitrusAd in France to deliver its retail media proposition and is now rolling this out across the UK, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Portugal and Romania.

Jury concluded: “Pre-emptive thanks to all my new friends and colleagues in Kingfisher. Can’t wait to get stuck in.”

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