Habitat appoints Diesel retail chief as head of UK

Habitat has appointed Diesel retail chief Ruth Dangerfield as country manager for the UK.

Dangerfield joins the home furnishings chain from Italian fashion brand Diesel where she was head of retail for four years. Previously, she worked for department stores House of Fraser and Harvey Nichols.

The post of country manager, equivalent to managing director, has been filled on an interim basis by group head of marketing and visual retail Florence Delorne. She will continue to be involved in the day-to-day UK operations until Dangerfield has completed a three-month induction and handover period, when Delorne will resume her previous duties.

Separately, Gary Mylem, head of marketing and visual retailing, is due to leave the company. It is not known if he has a job to go to.

Habitat operates 74 stores in the UK, France, Spain and Germany and franchises a number of privately-owned stores in other countries. It is controlled by the Ikano Group, a holding company owned by Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad and his family. The home furnishings retailer was founded in 1964 by Terence Conran.

In December last year it began a relaunch of its website as an e-commerce portal which will allow consumers across Europe to shop for its products online.

The furniture retailer also produces the Habitat Catalogue, which was originally launched as a style bible by designer Conran in 1966. It has a print run of more than 1 million copies.