Status: 10/20/2022 7:00 p.m
The well-known perfumery chain will soon have a new boss. Above all, Sander van der Laan should make Douglas more profitable. He replaces Tina Müller, who is moving to the supervisory board.
There is a change in management at the Douglas perfumery chain: Douglas boss Tina Müller is moving to the supervisory board, and the Dutchman Sander van der Laan will take over the management of the chain in November. At his last employer, the discounter Action, the 54-year-old significantly increased sales and operating profit, emphasized Douglas Supervisory Board Chairman Henning Kreke on Thursday.
“That makes him an ideal candidate to lead Douglas to the next phase,” he said. It will also be important to “further increase profitability”. The chain, 85 percent of which is controlled by the financial investor CVC, has been a candidate for the stock market for several years. The Kreke family holds the remaining 15 percent.
CVC Germany boss Alexander Dibelius certified van der Laan to be an “experienced manager with an outstanding track record with well-known trading companies and brand manufacturers”.
Müller set the course
The former Henkel and Opel manager Müller had moved to the top of Douglas in November 2017. She had consistently expanded online trading and strengthened the dovetailing of internet business with the branches. During her tenure there was also a restructuring of the European branch network with the closure of shops that were no longer profitable. Müller also had to steer the chain through the Corona crisis.
In addition, Douglas took over the Dutch mail-order pharmacy Disapo in order to expand its position in the growing healthcare market. Douglas had recently increased operating profit, but interest payments weighed on the chain. Because the takeover by the financial investor CVC was debt-financed, which Douglas has to earn back, so to speak.
“I have decided that now is the right time to take this step in order to provide new and different impetus in the coming years,” said the 54-year-old, commenting on her move to the supervisory board.