Sherrington successfully recruits new Managing Director for jewellery retailer

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Mococo

Mococo was founded in 2004 by entrepreneurs Lee and Maureen Hooson and soon became one of the best-loved branded jewellery retailers in the North-West of England, with a successful online / e-commerce business. Over time the business has developed highly-successful relationships with some of the finest designers in the world, stocking a plethora of brands including Pandora, Thomas Sabo, Swarovski, Clogau and Chlobo. As a result of changing market conditions and the effects of the global pandemic in 2020, Mococo’s retail business was impacted significantly, resulting in a number of store closures. However the flagship store in Mold has always remained a highly profitable outlet and well regarded in the industry by reference to the high standards of boutique jewellery retailing to which it operates.

In 2023, after 21 years, Mococo was purchased by the owners of regional corporate finance outfit Cleveland Scott. The buy-out by Tim Scott and Richard Higham represents an exciting new chapter for Mococo, with ambitions for significant growth of their regional store network and a return of Mococo’s reputation as a strong regional player in the fashion jewellery retail sector.

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Managing Director Recruitment

In Q1 2024, Mococo was right at the start of a truly exciting growth journey. Following the new ownership and emerging from the worst of the impacts of Covid, the business was in prime position to begin an exciting new growth chapter and required an experienced leader to work with the board to shape the strategy for growth of both bricks and mortar stores and e-commerce sales over the next decade.

The brief would require an experienced retail and e-commerce leader, with a pedigree in driving growth within a luxury branded consumer goods business, retailer or e-commerce company. To effectively grow the business over the coming years, the Managing Director would need to inspire confidence amongst the team and build their trust to get behind any future change initiatives and/or expansion plans.

Before expanding through both the launch of new stores across key towns and cities in the North-West region, as well as the ongoing development of its online offering, the new Managing Director would need to undertake exacting research to determine key metrics for growth and identifying exactly what the Mococo customer profile looks like. The successful candidate would therefore need to bring competence in making data-driven decisions, as well as the ability to communicate their vision to the team in a way that inspires confidence and engagement across the business. To find the leader, Sherrington Associates were appointed as the retained executive search partners in February 2024.

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The Search

Our clients were highly entrepreneurial and required a leader with a similar mindset. To meet the client's expectations, we needed to develop a shortlist of exceptional retail leaders who understood growth and expansion, who shared the board's vision for the future and who embodied Morocco's values of Teamwork, Service, Innovation, Integrity, Accountability, Respect and Fun.

Carrying out extensive desk research to map the talent pool of retail and e-commerce leaders in the North West, our team developed a diverse target list of experienced retail and branded consumer goods candidates, before consulting with clients to make sure we were aligned before making a series of confidential approaches to engage the targets. Having developed a compelling Recruitment Pack to showcase the opportunity, we quickly engaged the interest of a long-list of relevant candidates, before inviting them to screening interviews. Carrying out in-depth psychometric assessments and values appraisals, our consultants were able to assess culture-fit and values-alignment with Mococo, before presenting the strongest candidates as a shortlist to the client.

After advising on candidate strengths and weaknesses identified through our long-listing interviews, our clients used these insights to build a tailored interview structure for each candidate. Our consultants arranged and facilitated all interviews before meeting with clients to debrief and determine next steps.

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The Result

After several thorough selection stages, a standout candidate was identified and a successful offer negotiation was achieved with the help and support of our team. Tony Pulford, former Vice-President of international watch-straps brand Hirsch, joined Mococo in summer 20204. Commenting on the search, Sherrington's Executive Search Consultant, Joe Onions said...