New Russia chief for Castorama

Since the end of January Medric Payne has been running the Russian business of Castorama, the French subsidiary of Kingfisher. He is the successor to John Declerk, who will be working in future as the Kingfisher Group’s director of development. Payne previously belonged to the management of Kingfisher’s Brico Dépôt trading format. He has been with the British DIY and home improvement group since 1999. In the words of CEO Ian Cheshire, the Russian business is producing “some of the group’s highest and most dynamic rates of growth”. Castorama is currently represented by 19 stores in 14 regions of Russia; since 2006 it has invested more than € 250 bn there.