Say good Knight, Woolies

By Basheera Khan, UK correspondent, ITWeb

Johannesburg, 13 Jun 2001

Staff cutbacks planned at inthebag, the e-tail operation recently acquired by Woolworths, will not leave the executive management team unscathed. Jessica Knight, CEO of inthebag, will leave the company at the end of the month.

Knight says the cutbacks, which will affect roughly half of the inthebag team of 35, is the result of the restructuring following the change of ownership of the company. The restructuring process will be concluded by the end of June, and Woolworths` ownership of inthebag will take effect as of 1 July.

"I will be managing the transition, and helping to put in place a successor," says Knight, who confirms that she will effectively be part of the Wooltru Group for several months going forward.

The restructuring is not at all an issue of poor performance, Knight points out, but rather the complete opposite. Inthebag customers have been steadily increasing since the site`s launch, and the site has been refined in recent months.

"We`re going live with eBucks.com today, extending payment options and flexibility to our customers. The customers will not be affected by the restructuring," Knight assures.

Woolworths` products account for 75% of inthebag`s sales, according to a statement released by the Wooltru group. It believes Woolworths products have become synonymous with inthebag, and Woolworths has expressed eagerness to maintain an online presence and relationships with inthebag`s customers.

The inthebag model is envisioned as moving from a central distribution point model to that of a pick from store model, but this will not be implemented immediately.

Knight launched the online shopping business for the Wooltru Group in partnership with Woolworths in October 2000, and was responsible for all areas of business strategy, organisation development, partnerships and alliances.

The site was awarded the Bricks and Clicks award by the First Tuesday organisation. The award was presented to the old economy company that has successfully launched an Internet initiative aimed at either taking advantage of the Internet as a channel or leveraging Internet technology in a unique or innovative way.