The European beauty retailer has appointed Sander van der Laan as incoming CEO, succeeding Tina Müller who decided to resign and will join the Supervisory Board after five years at the head of the group. Mr. van der Laan (54) will take the lead of the company as of November 1, 2022.
Sander van der Laan most recently steered the fortunes of Dutch non-food retailer Action as CEO for more than six years. Under his leadership, the company’s sales increased from 2 to over 5 billion euros. He also played a key role in driving Action’s international expansion in ten European countries, further developing the brand and product range and establishing the company’s digital interface. Prior to joining Action, he spent over 16 years in various management positions at the retail company Ahold Delhaize - progressing to the position of CEO of the leading Dutch retail chain Albert Heijn, from 2011 to 2015. During this time, he was responsible for the transformation of Albert Heijn into a multi-channel brand and headed the company’s expansion into new markets.
“I am delighted that we have won Sander van der Laan as CEO of Douglas. He is an excellent manager with proven experience in the retail industry and a strong leadership personality. I would like to thank Tina Müller on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board for her outstanding contribution to the company’s success and regret her departure,” said Henning Kreke, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Douglas. “In the last years, she has redefined Douglas’ strategy and successfully driven the company’s transformation into Europe’s leading digital premium beauty platform. We are very pleased that we will continue to benefit from her expertise and experience as a member of the Supervisory Board.”
Since she was appointed CEO in November 2017, Tina Müller has realigned Douglas’ strategy. In addition to the strong focus on e-commerce, she repositioned Douglas with a successful brand relaunch and refined the shopping experience in the stores substantially. Most recently, Tina Müller restructured the European store network and laid the foundation for the company’s expansion into the highly attractive growing online pharmacy market with the acquisition of the Dutch mail-order pharmacy Disapo.
Douglas offers nearly 300,000 beauty, health and lifestyle products though a retail network of around 1,900 online and physical stores. In fiscal year 2020/21, Douglas generated sales of 3.1 billion euros.
