Ex-Mothercare chief joins Laura Ashley owner Gordon Brothers in top EMEA role

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 23, 2023

Mark Newton-Jones, the former head of Mothercare, has joined Gordon Brothers as its senior MD, Head of the UK and EMEA, serving as the top executive for the region.

The global advisory and investment firm is highly active in the fashion sector. It owns the Laura Ashley brand and is putting plenty of support put behind the relaunch and expansion of the British label.

It also worked with luxury business Moda Operandi at the start of the pandemic on its funding needs.

So what will Newton-Jones do at the firm? Based in London, he’ll “lead the continued expansion of the firm’s valuation, disposition and capital services working in partnership with a seasoned team of professionals to provide comprehensive solutions, including lending to, investing in and providing advice, for retail, consumer, commercial, and industrial clients and partners”.   

He’s an experienced executive with a high profile in fashion and, as mentioned, led struggling Mothercare as it worked on its turnaround and transformation. He was previously CEO of Shop Direct Group (now known as The Very Group) and “transformed the company from a large-scale, loss-making, brick-and-mortar and catalogue operation to one of the UK’s leading digital retail businesses”. He spent the earlier part of his career at Next where he held various roles in retail operations before becoming the director responsible for its catalogue, taking it online in the late 1990s. That was an important step for the business and since then it has become one of the UK’s biggest names in fashion and homewares e-tail.

Gordon Brothers’ Chief Investment Officer Franck Morton said: “His experience in leading companies through transition exemplifies the core of our history and is part of our DNA. Under Mark’s leadership, we look forward to expanding our global footprint to deliver comprehensive, bespoke solutions for our clients and partners throughout our established UK and European markets and into new markets in the Middle East and Africa.”