Comet appoints Geddes to board job

Comet, Kingfisher’s high street electronics chain, has named Paul

Geddes as its marketing director.

The appointment follows the promotion earlier this month of Stephen

O’Brien to the new job of director of complimentary channels at

Kingfisher where he will develop the company’s home-shopping and

internet strategies.

Geddes will sit on the Comet board and be responsible for overseeing

all marketing, advertising and public relations activities, as well as

internal communications. He will be based at Comet’s Rickmansworth

headquarters, reporting to the managing director, Joe Riordon.

Geddes, 30, joins from sister Kingfisher company Superdrug, where he

was head of marketing, reporting to marketing director Steven

Round.

He has been at the chemist and cosmetic chain for just over two years

and, before that, spent seven years as a marketing manager at Procter

& Gamble, where he started his career. He is expected to take up his

new post on August 16.

The appointment comes less than a month after Comet, the UK’s

second-largest electrical retailer, announced plans to introduce 50

new-look ’try before you buy’ outlets to win market share from sector

leader Currys, part of the Dixons Stores Group.

In March, Comet revealed disappointing results, with profits flat at

pounds 33.4m on a turnover of pounds 862.4m.

Despite a 0.6% fall in like-for-like sales, Comet’s market share

increased from 11.7% to 12.3%.

Comet’s annual adspend is around pounds 24m with advertising handled

by Saatchi & Saatchi, and planning and buying by Zenith Media.

This article was first published on Marketing