Morrisons has moved four of its senior directors into its wholly-owned subsidiary Kiddicare, the UK's leading online baby shop, as it continues to grow.

Kiddicare is bolstering its management team as it prepares to launch a full multi-channel experience.

The company has already recruited industry leaders from Mothercare, Moda in Pelle, Autotrader and Boots as it prepares to grow.

In all, four Morrisons directors will be moving in to Kiddicare:

  • Hilary Leam becomes Commercial Director at Kiddicare after being Director for Health, Beauty and Household at Morrisons
  • Grant Henley, becomes Operations Director at Kiddicare after being Business Development Director at Morrisons
  • Simon Eastwood becomes Retail Stores Director at Kiddicare after being Customer Experience Director at Morrisons
  • Mandy Flatley becomes HR Director at Kiddicare after being HR Director (Corporate) at Morrisons

The external senior hires recruited include:

§Alison Brown joins Kiddicare as Finance Director from the FD role at Mothercare International

§Retail design consultant Lara Snider joins as Head of Creative

§Ken Platt joins as Head of Multichannel from Moda in Pelle

§Paul Allen joins as Head of E-commerce from Boots.com

§Jody Goodall joins as Head of Solutions Architecture from Autotrader

Some 700 new jobs will be created as Kiddicare expands.

Dalton Philips, Chief Executive of Morrisons, said: "We have massive ambitions for Kiddicare and it's vital that we have the depth of talent in the management team to deal with a major expansion. That's why we are putting in place some of our most talented people.

"We're building a true multi-channel business over the next 12 months and we now have the management team to do it. The senior people joining us today ensure that we are ready to develop the best shopping experience for new parents in the UK."

A network of stores formerly run by Best Buy will extend the multi-channel offer currently led from Kiddicare's existing flagship store in Peterborough - the largest baby store in Europe.