DSG International suffered a fresh blow a few days ago when finance director Kevin O’Byrne jumped ship to rival retailer Kingfisher.
With the share price in freefall and talk growing that DSG may be forced to merge with Comet owner Kesa, the loss of one its most senior executives will be seen as bad news in the City.
Rumours of a merger have been flying around the city and the trade for several months and have been discussed within the trade forums in the past few weeks already. Of course such a deal would likely have to be cleared by the MMC.
John Browett, the chief executive of the Currys-to-PC World business, recently arrived from Tesco, and has begun a radical shake-up in a bid to save the company. O’Byrne was running the business before Browett arrived, and is thought to be peeved at having been passed over for the top job.
The 43-year-old, who had been finance director since 2004, takes up the same role at B&Q owner Kingfisher in October. He is replaced at DSG by Nicholas Cadbury, finance director of the international arm.
Kingfisher boss Ian Cheshire said of his new hire: ‘Kevin is a first-class finance director who brings with him considerable retail experience. I believe we now have a very strong top team.’
Duncan Tatton-Brown, Kingfisher’s finance chief for the past four years, is leaving to ‘pursue a career outside the group’ in the words of the statement.