Qurate Retail Recruits a Chief Operating Officer
Qurate Retail Group, adding to the string of changes to its senior management team this year, has named Scott Barnhart chief operating officer.
The position is a new one at Qurate, the multiplatform retailer that operates the HSN, QVC, Zulily, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill and Grandin Road brands, and specializes in video commerce.
More from WWD
As COO, Barnhart has a wide range of responsibilities. He leads supply chain, procurement, global business services and corporate real estate and workplace services for all Qurate Retail Group brands globally.
Barnhart also leads customer service and experience for all U.S. brands; QVC and HSN’s U.S. fulfillment operations, and the transformation management office for Project Athens, the company’s three-year strategy to establish revenue stability; operating income before depreciation and amortization, or OIBDA; margin expansion, and incremental cash flow generation.
Barnhart reports to David L. Rawlinson 2nd, president and chief executive officer of Qurate Retail Inc., since August 2021 when he succeeded Mike George. Qurate Retail Group is part of Qurate Retail Inc.
“As we work to reignite our performance as Qurate Retail Group, we continue to augment our leadership team with new talent that will blend fresh perspectives and skills into the deep institutional knowledge already on the team,” Rawlinson said in a statement Friday. “As head of operations, Scott will play a key role in helping us accelerate Project Athens, our strategic growth plan.” Rawlinson cited Barnhart’s “expertise and experience in driving operational excellence, as well as his deep knowledge of global supply chain management.”
Rawlinson has orchestrated extensive senior-level management changes through Qurate Retail Group to improve the company’s performance and further efforts to differentiate the QVC and HSN brands. Last March, top management at QVC and HSN was reorganized. Mike Fitzharris was named president of QVC U.S.; Rob Muller was named president of HSN, and Mary Campbell was named president of a new business unit created to accelerate Qurate Retail Group’s efforts in streaming and other live video commerce initiatives.
Earlier in September, Soumya Sriraman, former head of Prime Video Channels at Amazon, was named president of streaming for Qurate Retail Group, a new position. Qurate Retail Group’s newest business unit, vCommerce Ventures, operates the company’s streaming service and is designed to accelerate digital live streaming shopping operations. Also, Stacy Bowe, a former senior merchandising executive at G-III Apparel Group and Macy’s Inc., was named chief merchandising officer of QVC U.S.
Barnhart has more than 30 years experience in global supply chain and customer service at Fortune 500 brands and similarly sized global corporations. Most recently, he was president of global medical products and supply chain at Cardinal Health, leading a five-year global supply chain transformation strategy. Prior to Cardinal Health, Barnhart was president of global supply chain and group purchasing organizations at Aramark, a food, facilities and uniform services company. At Aramark, he redesigned the food and facilities customer service model and delivered significant productivity over three years, Qurate indicated in its announcement. He also developed Aramark’s group purchasing organization strategy and oversaw the integration of a large group purchasing organization acquisition. Prior to Aramark, Barnhart held senior supply chain positions at Conagra Brands and Diageo, and earlier worked as a consultant at PwC and E&Y.
In the second quarter ended June 30, Qurate Retail reported a 16 percent decline in revenues to just over $2.95 billion, from $3.5 billion in the 2021 period. Operating income declined 3 percent to $418 million from $433 million.
In 2021, revenues slipped 1 percent to $14.04 billion from $14.18 billion in 2020, and operating income was $1.09 billion compared to $1.57 billion in 2020.
