Former Primark exec is named Boohoo responsible sourcing director

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 9, 2020

Boohoo has named a former Primark exec to a key newly-created role, with Andrew Reaney becoming its responsible sourcing director.

He had been operations director at Primark until he left the firm a year ago and while there will have worked with current Boohoo CEO John Lyttle, who earlier was COO at Primark.

It’s an important development for Boohoo, which this year was heavily criticised over its UK supply chain. It was found to be using factories in Leicester where wages and conditions were poor.

The newspaper revelations saw its share price taking a dive, calls for its senior managers to stand down and the launch of an independent inquiry that only partially exonerated the company.

As part of its response to that, it promised to tighten up its supply chain oversight and Reaney’s appointment is an important part of that process.

Reaney joined Primark in 2011 and stepped into the operations director role two years ago. 

His arrival isn’t the only step the company is taking and earlier it announced a raft of changes it’s making to ensure there’s no repeat of the scandal in the future. Boohoo has also said it’s bringing in two new non-executive directors, one of which will have a background in environmental, social and governance issues.