Footasylum chief Bown moves into consultancy role, Pujolar is new CEO

Footasylum Executive Chair and CEO Barry Bown has handed over control of the sports and streetwear business to David Pujolar who has just joined as CEO.

Bown has stepped down from his post at the helm of the business to take up a consultancy role with Aurelius, Footasylum’s owner. He’d originally joined the company in 2018, before which he spent over 30 years at JD Sports, the last 14 of them as CEO. 

At one point the two businesses came together with JD having bought Footasylum, although a competition authority ruling put an end to that link-up, at which point Aurelius stepped in.

The German private equity group said Bown “has successfully steered the company through a hugely eventful few years, and has restored it to stability and profitability against a challenging backdrop”.

His new role will see him “continu[ing] to use his vast industry knowledge and expertise to support the growth of Footasylum and other Aurelius portfolio companies”.

As for new CEO David Pujolar, he joins from Bata Group’s AW LAB, the multibrand, multichannel streetwear, sportswear and lifestyle retailer, where he’s been General Manager since 2016. That company has 270+ shops in Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Aurelius said Pujolar “has led AW LAB’s global expansion across retail, e-commerce and franchising, developed and implemented a new omnichannel web platform, added tools such as artificial intelligence and Power Business Intelligence, and also created AW LAB’s loyalty club membership, which today has over three million members”.

Before that, he was in a number of leadership positions in buying and merchandising at Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, and Foot Locker. 

The leadership change comes after the company reported “an exceptionally strong” FY24 and Q4 revenues up 7.7%, significantly beating the wider market.