ThoughtWorks' Retail Business Announces Growth Plan for 2015

Expands Team and Makes First Appearance at Retail Week Live

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Mar 10, 2015, 06:00 ET

LONDON, March 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- After 21 years as a successful technology-led business, co-founding Agile software practices, defining continuous delivery and more recently publishing The Lean Enterprise, global IT innovation consultancy ThoughtWorks is investing in a retail-focused future. Established just three years ago, ThoughtWorks' Retail Business Unit reached $22 million in revenue at the end of 2014 in Europe and over $70m Globally. In Europe it has a growth plan to reach $40 million by 2016.

"We work with some of the best known brands in retail and plan to expand our global footprint even further," said Mark Collin, Head of ThoughtWorks Retail Europe. "For years clients have turned to us with their major opportunities and challenges and we have tackled them using technology. In a world where it is hard to separate strategy and business planning from technology dependency, we know the time is right to add to our 'tech at the core' capability."

In Europe, ThoughtWorks' retail unit now spans the UK, Germany, Italy and Turkey. The company has built a retail team that represents the best in digital strategy, retail strategy, turnaround strategy, focused on positive business outcomes. It recently added a number of respected industry figures to the team: Ruth Harrison (Selfridges, Coach, Estee Lauder); Kristine Kirby (Hackett, Monsoon Accesorize, zulily, Fat Face, Lipsy); Kai Perlinger (Global Head of Brand Marketing Operations & Event Retail - Puma); Matt Hildon (Digital Strategy Lead – The Co-operative Group, HBOS); Mark Brand (OC&C and Pragma Consulting); Bill McKimm (eCommerce specialist working for Tesco, EasyJet and B&Q amongst others), Martin Weisath (Partner at Putz&Partner Management Consultancy, Tchibo and BMW).

To mark this significant investment in the retail space, ThoughtWorks will exhibit at Retail Week Live for the first time, inviting attendees to see how ThoughtWorks' advanced techniques improve the individual consumer retail journey, impacting top and bottom line performance. In addition, Mark Collin will host two sessions with retail clients John Crosby, VP of Product and Technology at Lastminute.com; and Andrew Rennie, CEO of Dominos Europe.

"ThoughtWorks has been a key player in the success of our customer loyalty program," said Andrew Rennie, CEO of Domino's Pizza Enterprises Europe. "The retail team's innovative approach in applying technology to a specific retail challenge allowed us to engage with customers so effectively that it helped us to a 44.2% profit increase over the last financial half year. We look forward to continuing to work with ThoughtWorks as a Global Innovation Partner."

About ThoughtWorks:
We are a software company and community of passionate, purpose-led individuals. We think disruptively to deliver technology that addresses our clients' toughest challenges, all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change. ThoughtWorks' 3,000 professionals serve clients from offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, Germany, India, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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