Boots appoints a creative director

Jon Turner will join Boots the Chemists as creative director, two weeks after its chairman John McGrath called in management consultant McKinsey to address the company’s ‘lost focus’.

The appointment fills the senior creative vacuum that has existed at the UK’s largest health and beauty chain since John McConnell’s departure this summer. The job is believed to encompass a broad remit of design commissioning.

Turner, who starts on Monday, was previously executive creative director at Enterprise IG. He says he will remain based in London and will continue to work closely with the WPP Group, which enjoys a role as Boots’ ‘global agency’.

‘I’m excited about the challenge and pleased to be retaining my links with WPP,’ Turner adds.

A Boots spokeswoman says Turner will be responsible for the ‘creative expression of the brand’.

The retailer is under pressure from investors and its own senior management to improve margins and redefine its role on the high street. Earlier this month, it reported a fall of almost 3 per cent in pre-tax profits, while chief executive Steve Russell’s back-to-basics approach has already halted further expansion of the Pure Beauty brand.

The company is committed to a £170m refurbishment of its 1400-strong estate, and a decision on the future of the loss-making Wellbeing centres is expected in January 2003.

Din Associates is working on a retail design project, having been appointed during McConnell’s time, DW can also reveal.

Enterprise IG UK chief executive officer London Patrick Smith says the group has appointed Dave Brown as executive creative director UK. Smith describes the role as ‘slightly broader’ than Turner’s remit, encompassing the product and brand experience departments in addition to Turner’s corporate/ service division. Brown was chairman at Brown KSDP before the group merged with Enterprise IG.