Specialty retailer Godfreys has appointed two senior executives to its “transforming” business, as the retailer continues working on its turnaround strategy.

Ex-Wendy’s, Toys “R” Us and Ebay in the US executive Cat Parker has been made chief customer officer. Godfreys said Parker has experience across retail e-commerce, digital, data and analytics, customer experience and customer lifecycle management gained over her 17 year career.

Most recently Cat held the position of GM digital, data, IT, product and marketing with Goodyear, which has a distributed network of over 600 stores across Australia (mix of company owned, franchised and licensed operators), as well as manufacturing and wholesale distribution of products under the Goodyear, Dunlop and Kelly brands.

Mari Ruiz has been installed as chief people and culture officer.

Ruiz has over 25 years’ experience in HR leadership roles across a number of organisations and was most recently held the same role at BankVic. In 2017, Ruiz won the CEO Magazine HR Leader of the Year, the Australian Human Resources Institute’s Dave Ulrich HR Leader Award, and her team were finalists for The Australian HR Awards Team of the Year (<1000 Employees). Prior to this Mari held senior HR roles with Dun & Bradstreet, NAB and TAL Direct.

Godfreys CEO Jason Gowie said the appointments will enhance capability in key focus areas for the business. “We are looking forward to the significant contribution both Cat and Mari will make in transforming the Godfreys business over the coming years.”

Both roles will commence on 13 March 2018.

In its latest trading update, Godfreys reported a $58.6 million net loss for the first half of FY18.

Gowie said in February that the retailer plans to double the proportion of the company’s sales coming from online as part of a new plan to dramatically reposition the struggling specialty vacuum business.