Harvey Nichols chief quits, will leave later this year

Manju Malhotra, CEO of Harvey Nichols, has reportedly quit the role she’s held for a little over three years with Pearson Poon, the 29-year-old son of the retailer’s majority owner Sir Dickson Poon, to become vice-chairman until a new CEO is found.

The news was first reported by The Telegraph that said Malhotra quit “abruptly” after clashing with Poon over her plans for the business. However, a Harvey Nichols spokesperson told fashionnetwork.com that “the decision was made on amicable terms and Manju is working up until the end of the year to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible. A clash between Manju and the owner is categorically untrue”. 

Dickson Poon has owned Harvey Nichols UK since 1991 with the Hong Kong-based tycoon being the retailer’s chairman (his company Dickson Concepts holds the licenses in China). Pearson Poon has until now been an executive director of Harvey Nichols.

The company has been loss-making in its three most recent years. But those periods were extraordinarily difficult for many retailers and the owner’s view is that that the retailer is ultimately a successful one whose strategy is working.

Harvey Nichols lost £30 million in the year to May 2022 (the latest year for which accounts are available). It was profitable before the pandemic, although it made only £2.7 million in its last pre-Covid year. The parent company has since invested heavily in the business.

Malhotra has been with the company for 25 years and was co-COO with Daniela Rinaldi before becoming CEO in January 2020, just a short time before the pandemic and its associated lockdowns began. It was also just a year before the UK ended VAT-free shopping for tourists, which further dented business for luxury retailers.

Meanwhile, Dickson Poon said she’d been “instrumental in driving the business through unprecedented times and laid out strong foundations which we will continue to build on for the future”.