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Hajir Hajji, 41, will be Action’s new CEO. She started her career with the chain at the age of 17, as a shelving filler.
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The fast-growing Dutch retail chain Action is getting a new captain. Sander van der Laan (53), who increased the chain’s turnover from 2 to 5.6 billion euros in the past six years, will hand over the helm in January to commercial director Hajir Hajji (41). It must steer the retail chain to a turnover of 10 billion euros within four years. The number of stores should increase from more than 1,700 today to 3,000.
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The essence
- Action gets a new CEO: Hajir Hajji.
- She started her career at Action 24 years ago, at the age of 17, as a shelving filler.
- She moved up the ranks and was commercial director for the past three years.
- She experimented with e-commerce, among other things. Digital sales will become a priority for the retail chain in the coming years.
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It is written in the stars that Action will travel to even more countries under Hajji’s rule. The first points of sale will open in Spain next year. In the past year, Action went to Italy and the Czech Republic. The chain is now active in nine countries in Europe. Since 2005 also in Belgium, where twelve stores were added in the past year. There are now 200 Belgian stores.
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Apply at the bakery
Hajji, who was born and raised in Amsterdam, knows the retail chain inside and out, as she has been working there since she was 17. She has been commercial director for the past three years. Before that, she was responsible for the Action stores outside her home country of the Netherlands for seven years.
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Young Hajji may never have imagined that she would make it to the top woman of the chain when she was looking for an interim job. She had stopped her studies in socio-pedagogical sciences and wanted to earn some money before starting a new study. She applied for a job at a bakery, at a supermarket and at Action, she told the business newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad a year ago. Action was the first to respond.
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The one company woman evolved in 14 years from shelf filler to board member. The outside world got to know her at the start of the corona pandemic, when she put the knife to the throats of Action’s suppliers. Action saw its turnover drop sharply because many stores had to close by order of the government. Hajji informed the suppliers in a letter that they would only receive their money after 90 days instead of the already rather generous 60-day period. She later apologized for that.
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Webshop
Action suffered heavily due to the crisis, but held its ground. Last year, store sales fell by 1.4 percent for the first time in history. Gross operating profit (EBITDA) rose by 1 percent to 616 million euros, thanks to the dozens of new stores that opened their doors.
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Action is ready for the next phase of its growth agenda, with an increasing focus on digital and sustainable growth. Two parts for which Hajir is currently responsible.
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Also a project of Hajji gave some support. She started experimenting with an online store: a few Belgian and French stores were given a collection point.
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Before corona, Action completely ignored the booming e-commerce, because the chain did not need a webshop at all. The low prices attracted enough people to the shops. Moreover, those low prices would make it impossible to make an online store profitable. For that reason, other popular, cheap retail chains, such as Primark, do not have a webshop.
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During corona, the reverse of the medal became visible. Due to the closure of the stores, there was no income in some countries, while other retail chains could still count on their digital stores. Hajji’s experiment apparently got the approval of main shareholder 3i, an investment fund. Action is ready for the next phase of its growth agenda, with an increasing focus on digital and sustainable growth. Two parts for which Hajir is currently responsible.’
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