City & Corporate: Home Retail Group rejigs PR after review

Nikki Wicks, PR Week UK, Friday, 21 October 2011, 12:00am,

Home Retail Group, the parent firm of high street brands Argos and Homebase, has completed an overhaul of its in-house comms function.

The structural review was overseen by Home Retail Group's director of corporate affairs Chris Wermann, who joined the company in February after six years as corporate affairs boss at Kellogg's.

Following the internal review, the company's former group consumer PR manager Vikki Adamson has been promoted to oversee corporate and consumer PR, reporting directly to Wermann.

The company has also brought in Hayley Fowell as PR manager for Argos from the Post Office, and Judith Ineson as PR manager for Homebase from Yakult.

The new team will provide strategic and tactical support for the company's brands and work alongside its external PR agencies, which include consumer agencies Iris PR and Clarion Communications and City firm Finsbury.

The company said 'broader reputational demands' from stakeholders such as pressure groups, politicians and bloggers had prompted the review.

Home Retail Group is the UK's leading home and general merchandise retailer with sales of almost £6bn in the past financial year.