Girobank poaches Asda’s George marketing chief

Asda’s head of marketing for its George clothing brand, Claire Bulman, has joined Girobank, part of the commercial banking arm of Alliance & Leicester in the same role.

Asda is recruiting a replacement for Bulman, who reported to retail and marketing director Simon Singleton.

Bulman joined as George head of marketing from Matalan in 2001, where she had been responsible for advertising and marketing. During her spell at the value retailer she co-ordinated a national press campaign created by CDP which claimed that Matalan was up to 60 per cent cheaper than Marks & Spencer.

At Girobank, Bulman will be the most senior marketer and report to its director of business development Stewart Fraser. Girobank is being rebranded as Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank and it is thought that Bulman will help oversee this task.

Girobank operates through a network of about 17,500 Post Offices and provides a means of banking cheques, credit card vouchers and cash for businesses. It also provides revenue collection services, processes transactions for local authorities, utility companies and other organisations and enables customers to pay a variety of household bills at Post Offices.

However, the nature of its business is changing as people pay bills by direct debit and have their benefits paid direct into bank accounts.