UK online marketplace welcomes experienced retail and technology COO
Fruugo, an online marketplace platform based in the UK, has appointed Fergal Gara as its new chief operations officer as it eyes global expansion.
Before joining Fruugo, Gara served as chief commercial officer at CMS Distribution, a specialist distributor, where he led commercial strategy and operations across the UK, Europe and USA.聽
Prior to CMS Distribution, he held several roles at Amazon, including director of technology and operations at Amazon Fashion, where he led internal transformation programmes, implementation of new automation and business intelligence tools and delivery of operational improvement programmes.聽
He also served as director for IT, office products and UK pricing, leading high growth categories at a key time in Amazon鈥檚 development.
He has held roles at Sony Computer Entertainment UK, as vice president and managing director (UK & Ireland), where he led the launch of PlayStation 4 (PS4) in the region, and Asda Stores Limited (Ltd.) as trading director for Asda Direct and various other commercial roles.聽
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“Fergal has extensive board-level experience with some of the biggest names in the retail sector,” said Dominic Allonby, executive chairman and co-founder at Fruugo. 鈥淗is appointment to Fruugo鈥檚 executive team is a pivotal moment in Fruugo鈥檚 history.聽
鈥淭he company has gone from strength to strength, and with his experience gained at Amazon, Sony and Asda, we can trust him to guide us and implement Fruugo鈥檚 strategic vision for 2024 and beyond.鈥�
Gara has deep sector knowledge and has led multiple change programmes and acquisitions across the European and USA markets. In his new role, he will bring his expertise to steer Fruugo鈥檚 sales and marketing activity, to build awareness and drive customer engagement across key regions.聽
“It鈥檚 a really exciting time to be joining Fruugo given its growth trajectory,” said Gara. 鈥淭he leadership team is ambitious, and we already have many strategic projects underway.聽
鈥淚 look forward to helping Fruugo expand in several key markets and working closely with retailers to help them achieve their sales goals and drive cross-border trade which is vital to the wider economy.”
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