BELEAGURED electricals retailer DSG International, owner of Currys and PC World, suffered a new blow yesterday when its finance director Kevin O'Byrne was poached by rival retailer Kingfisher.
O'Byrne, aged 43, had been FD at DSG, formerly known as Dixons, since 2004. Some retail analysts said they felt he was disappointed at losing out on the top job recently to John Browett, who joined as chief executive from Tesco some months back.
O
'Byrne will be finance director at Kingfisher, owner of the B&Q group, where he replaces Duncan Tatton-Brown, who the company said was leaving "to pursue a career outside the group".
O'Byrne is replaced at DSG by Nicholas Cadbury, finance director of the company's international division.
Browett has been trying to shake up a business seen as drifting and under severe pressure from consumers cooling on purchases of big-ticket electrical items.
Last month DSG posted a 30 per cent plunge in annual profits, as the new senior executive said he remained very cautious about consumer confidence.
Including restructuring and business impairment charges of £389.2 million, DSG made a loss before tax of £192.8m in its latest trading year.
The annual dividend was slashed last month to 5.45p from 8.87p last time.
Kingfisher has its own problems. It has cut its own divi and has written off tens of millions of pounds to reflect downgrades at its Chinese arm.
Kingfisher also announced the appointment of Peter Hogsted, from Ikea, as boss of the international business.
The full article contains 257 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
