Next promotes Lipsy co-founder to senior acquisitions role

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 8, 2023

Next has been one of the most active major names on the acquisition front in UK retail of late and it doesn't look like it's about to slow down any time soon with news on Wednesday that it has made a key promotion to its board.

The company has promoted Jeremy Stakol, the co-founder of Next’s subsidiary Lipsy. He’s become an executive director of the parent company and will lead its acquisitions.

This comes after the company has acquired a number of brands, including Joules, Made.com and JoJo Maman Bébé, as well as signing licenses to handle labels via partnership deals in the UK, such as Gap, Victoria’s Secret and Laura Ashley.

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Stakol’s new role as director of group investments, acquisitions and third-party brands begins in April and the company said he will “maximise the following business opportunities: investments and acquisitions in third-party brands; the promotion (but not implementation and management) of Total Platform to potential new clients; the sale of all third-party fashion brands on next.co.uk (excluding Home brands); the continued development of Lipsy along with other wholly owned non-Next brands; overseas wholesale, franchise and licencing of Next branded stock”.

It’s clearly a massive role, but the executive has proved his worth in the time that he's been with Next. 

He holds a Masters in Professional Accounting and spent his early career in the finance department of a large media company. In 2004, he became Lipsy MD and joined Next when it acquired the brand 14 years ago.

Next said that in more recent years, he’s “successfully led many of the recent new investment deals and related Total Platform opportunities (such as Joules, Victoria's Secret, Gap and others)”.