Fashion
Jo Whitfield is new BRC chair, first woman to take the role
Published
August 28, 2025
The British Retail Consortium is getting a female chair for the very first time with former Matalan and Co-op exec Jo Whitfield to take over from Andy Higginson in early October.
Whitfield has a quarter of a century of experience in retail and is currently a non-executive and audit chair at Asda, a non-executive and chair of the ethics committee at Factory International, and host of the Manchester International Festival.
She also played a leading industry role campaigning alongside the BRC to achieve better safety recognition and a change to the law to protect retail shopworkers.
She’ll be joined by Eve Williams, as a new non-executive director on the BRC board. Again, she’s hugely experienced and is VP and general manager of eBay UK as well as having held executive marketing and customer roles in both eBay and at ASOS, before being appointed to her current role.
Whitfield said: “I’m honoured to be joining the BRC as its first female Chair, and to be supporting Helen and her team at such a pivotal time. Retail is an incredibly valuable industry, employing over 3 million people who support their families through their work. It’s also uniquely inclusive and many of us have built our careers from the shop floor or from working-class backgrounds, rising into leadership roles and enjoying fulfilling careers.
“Retailers are at the heart of communities, and we’re acutely aware of the many government policies currently under consideration that could either support or hinder our industry. This is a critical moment for us all and now more than ever, we need a strong, united voice. I look forward to working closely with Helen and the team to ensure the interests of our industry are championed and protected.”
And Helen Dickinson, BRC CEO, added: “Jo and Eve join the board as we deal with multiple public policy headwinds and more to do on big issues like climate change, inclusion, and creating the right environment for growth and investment. I know how passionate they both are on these areas and particularly on people so it’s great to welcome two more women to our board and our first female chair.
“It has been a pleasure working with Andy and I would like to thank him for his pragmatic, down-to-earth advice, leadership and support over the past two-and-a-half years. We are a stronger organisation for it.”
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Fashion
Dutch inflation slips to 2.8% in December 2025
Consumer goods and services in the Netherlands were 2.8 per cent more expensive in December 2025 than a year earlier, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). This marked a marginal cooling from November’s 2.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY) reading. On a month-on-month basis, consumer prices remained virtually unchanged compared with November.
With the December data now finalised, average consumer price inflation for the whole of 2025 stood at 3.3 per cent compared with 2024, CBS said in a release.
Under the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), Dutch inflation eased to 2.5 per cent in December from 2.6 per cent in November. By contrast, inflation across the euro area declined from 2.1 per cent to 2 per cent, helped by lower energy prices.
Consumer inflation in the Netherlands has eased slightly to 2.8 per cent in December 2025, down from 2.9 per cent in November, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
Prices were broadly stable month on month (MoM).
Average inflation for full-year 2025 came in at 3.3 per cent, while euro area inflation slowed to 2 per cent.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (HU)
Fashion
Germany’s Hugo Boss reshapes structure with menswear, womenswear units
As part of this transformation, Kerstin Dorst will assume the newly created role of Senior Vice President Business Unit Womenswear as of January 15, reporting into HUGO BOSS Chief Sales Officer and Deputy CEO Oliver Timm. Dorst joins HUGO BOSS from Tory Burch, where she spent more than 10 years in New York and played a key role in growing the brand’s main collection and sportswear. Prior to Tory Burch, she worked at Adidas for over five years in Germany and Asia, contributing to the launch of the brand’s SLVR premium sportswear line, among others. In her new role, Dorst will also oversee the creative direction for womenswear collections, working closely with Marco Falcioni, HUGO BOSS Creative Director.
Hugo Boss is introducing separate menswear and womenswear business units to strengthen gender-specific expertise, unlock synergies and support its CLAIM 5 TOUCHDOWN growth strategy.
Kerstin Dorst will join as SVP Business Unit Womenswear from January 15, reporting to Oliver Timm, while Christian Schwinn continues to lead menswear across Boss and Hugo.
“With the new organizational structure, we are reshaping our business units to strengthen our focus on womenswear and lay the foundation for future growth. The new set-up will enable us to address gender-specific preferences even better and to deliver collections with a true customer centric approach in both areas in the future,” said Oliver Timm, Chief Sales Officer and Deputy CEO of HUGO BOSS. “In this context, I am pleased to welcome Kerstin Dorst in the newly created role for womenswear. Her extensive international experience and profound expertise will play a key role in taking our womenswear business to the next level in the years to come.”
The BOSS Menswear business will continue to be led by Christian Schwinn, who will additionally take on responsibility for HUGO Menswear as Senior Vice President Business Unit Menswear.
Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RM)
Fashion
North India cotton yarn trade slows amid US tariff uncertainty
In the Ludhiana market, cotton yarn prices were broadly stable, with spinning mills maintaining their selling rates due to advance export sales bookings. A Ludhiana-based trader told Fibre*Fashion, “The cotton yarn market has become highly sensitive to US tariff-related developments. After earlier threats of *** per cent US tariffs, the recent announcement of a ** per cent tariff on Iran’s trading partners has triggered fresh concerns. Buyers have turned extremely cautious and are restricting purchases to immediate requirements only.”
In Ludhiana, ** count cotton combed yarn was sold at ****;***–*** (~$*.**–*.**) per kg (inclusive of GST); ** and ** count combed yarn were traded at ****;***–*** (~$*.**–*.**) per kg and ****;***–*** (~$*.**–*.**) per kg, respectively; and carded yarn of ** count was noted at ****;***–*** (~$*.**–*.**) per kg today, according to trade sources.
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