Douglas restructures in southern Europe, appoints Fabio Pampani as regional head

By

Triana Alonso

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Feb 10, 2021

Douglas's restructuring effort has now reached senior-management level. At the end of January, the German beauty retailer announced the closure of 500 of its 2,400 European stores, in addition to cutting up to 600 jobs in Spain. On Tuesday February 9, Douglas confirmed it has carried out a sweeping overhaul of its southern European organisation. A decision that leads to the merger of the group’s subsidiaries in Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Fabio Pampani, who since 2017 has served as the CEO of Douglas in Italy, will be taking charge of regional operations in southern Europe from next March. Pampani’s lengthy career in the retail sector began with Italian department store group Coin, and continued in 2001, when he was named general manager of OVS. Nine years later, he was appointed to the same role at Upim and, in 2013, he became the general manager of Italian perfumery chain Leading Luxury Group (LLG). In November 2017, the Düsseldorf-based Douglas group bought LLG and put Pampani at the helm of its Italian subsidiary. LLG’s acquisition made the German group the leading perfumery retailer in Italy, operating a network of over 500 stores.

“With his experience and profound market knowledge, [Pampani] is the ideal leader to realise Douglas's great potential, and to deliver the best service to our customers in southern Europe, as the group continues to evolve into a digitalised company with physical stores,” said the CEO of Douglas, Tina Müller, talking about Pampani’s appointment. Pampani, as the regional CEO and general manager of Douglas southern Europe, will be at the helm of the newly created organisation. The CEO of Douglas in Spain, Ana Rojo, has in the meantime stepped down from her role.

According to Douglas, after 3 years in office, Rojo has left the company to pursue a new professional project in another sector. “We are very sorry [Rojo] has left the company. [She] has done an excellent job steering Douglas through these difficult last few years, especially since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and she has paved the way for profitable growth in the future,” said Müller. She added that “We are convinced we have given the southern Europe region a very solid grounding in terms of meeting future challenges. The restructuring of Douglas's organisation will enable us to run the business in a more centralised fashion.”

These senior management changes are part of Douglas’s strategy of "transforming [the group] into a digitalised company with a retail business,” heralded by Douglas on January 28. At the same time, the group announced its European reorganisation and the closure of 20% of its stores.

Douglas’s goal is to prioritise online sales. In the 2019-20 financial year, closed last September, the group's revenue fell by 6.4%, to €3.2 billion. In the same period, its online sales grew by 40.6% to €822 million, equivalent a 25% share of the total, while in Germany alone this share was as high as 40%.