Zaandam, the Netherlands, 2014-9-15— /EPR Retail News/ — Bol.com has recruited Belgian national Patrick Wauters (45) to head up Buying & Merchandising, responsible for the day-to-day operations at all of bol.com’s stores, from Books & Music, Films & Games to its latest additions Baby & Toddler and Jewelry & Watches. As Director of Buying & Merchandising, Wauters will lead a team of over 200 employees including category managers, purchasing managers, product, pricing and supply chain specialists.
Webstore ready for new growth phase
With a wealth of international commercial experience gained at Fatboy among other companies, Wauters got Fatboy back on a profitable growth track when serving as its CEO. He acquired a great deal of knowledge about the online retailing business in the process, and is intimately familiar with the challenges and opportunities this market offers to manufacturers and suppliers. Before joining Fatboy, Wauters was responsible for Chiquita’s fresh products in Northern and Eastern Europe and oversaw the European rollout of Bertolli at Unilever.
Daniel Ropers, bol.com’s General Manager, is delighted: “Patrick is strong on strategy and likes action. He’s got lots of experience managing people in a rapidly changing environment and his personality is a great fit for bol.com. We’ve enjoyed the substantive, inspiring and humor-filled talks we had as part of the recruitment process. Patrick will complete our management team and help us get bol.com ready to move into a new growth phase, strengthening our position in e-commerce.”
“I’m really proud to be the first Belgian national to join bol.com’s management team and to contribute to the company’s continued success as the leading online retailer in both Belgium and the Netherlands,” Wauters said. “Bol.com has a lot of great people on board and the best talents to help achieve its ambitious goals for the future. I look forward to doing my bit and joining my many colleagues to help pull this off.”
Wauters has spent the past few months as interim manager at a toy retailer in Belgium and will start as Director of Buying & Merchandising at bol.com on 1 October. He will join Michel Schaeffer (Marketing), Marijn de Wit (Finance & Support,) Jurrie van Rooijen (IT), Huub Vermeulen (Operations) and Daniel Ropers (General Manager) on the webstore’s management team.
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