Claudia Plant takes over as CMO at Hunter

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 25, 2020

Hunter has named a retail heavyweight to its chief marketing officer role as it continues to renew its senior management team. The company said that Claudia Plant, a luxury retail veteran who was a Net-A-Porter co-founder, has joined with immediate effect. 

Hunter is reinventing itself for the new normal and recently launched a collab with Saint Laurent. The importance of its new CMO's role can be seen from the fact that she’s reporting directly to interim CEO Paolo Porta.

And with a more-than-25-year background in retail, she has an impressive amount of experience to help her shape the brand positioning and deliver its marketing and communications strategy.

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She was CMO at luxury beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury and also worked at Burberry as senior vice-president of brand experience, a post she held during both Christopher Bailey’s and Riccardo Tisci’s time at the creative helm. Again, at Burberry, she reported directly to its CEO, Marco Gobbetti, and has been a major player in the changes that have been seen at the brand recently.

She spent 17 years at Net-A-Porter before this during it's very earliest days when it was battling to be taken seriously by some luxury brands and also trying to establish itself with a consumer group that wasn't yet convinced luxury and online went together very well.

“This is an incredible opportunity to join Hunter for its important next chapter,” Plant said of her new post. “I have enormous respect for the company’s rich heritage and product, which I believe is so relevant for today’s world and consumer, at a time when we are witnessing such a shift in lifestyle and trends.”

Hunter has seen a lot of change in recent periods with creative director Alasdhair Willis stepping down in July, but remaining an adviser to the firm’s parent company. This came shortly after news of CEO Vincent Wauters’ departure.

He left as the firm launched a strategic review to position itself for future growth after having clinched a rescue financing deal in June that saw a further £16.5 million being pumped into the business to keep it going through the crisis period.

The refinancing was led by existing shareholder Pall Mall Legacy and supported by Searchlight Capital, Pentland and other minority shareholders.