Company
Bazaar Group is a market-leading supplier and eCommerce retailer re-energising the European casual seating category. They are proud to deliver feel-good furniture across the globe. The business was founded in 2005 with strong values and grew rapidly under the guidance of the Founders. In 2021, the company secured investment from Comhar Capital, and have quickly become a leader in the category of soft seating.
Project
The Founder of Bazaar Group made a strategic decision to step back from day-to-day operations and transition into a Non-Executive role, marking a pivotal moment for the organisation and creating the opportunity to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer to lead the business into its next phase of growth.
This decision reflected confidence in the company’s strong foundations and a desire to empower a leader who could accelerate innovation, scale operations, and strengthen the brand’s market position.
The business sought an experienced, people-centric CEO with an authentic leadership style and low ego—someone who could inspire trust, foster collaboration, and build strong, high-performing teams.The ideal candidate brought broad commercial expertise across sales, marketing, and product development, with a proven track record in digitally led businesses where online channels had been fundamental to growth.
Methodology
Our approach combined deep market insight with rigorous candidate assessment and close collaboration with the Board to ensure strong alignment with the company’s vision and values. The process focused on identifying leaders with a proven track record within ecommerce brands, demonstrating operational excellence and a strong bias toward innovation.
Given the North East location, the search was focused on candidates either already based in the Newcastle region or open to relocating to the area, ensuring both cultural fit and long-term commitment to the business.
Bazaar Group's new CEO: Leanne Cahill
"The entire experience from initial contact to contract was straightforward and positive.
The Drayton team understand and know The Bazaar Group really well, including the key individuals and exactly what they were looking for. Drayton's brief, advice and insight were spot on and, they were prompt and thorough with feedback throughout.
Nicola is obviously great at what she does, but over and above that, her personable and friendly approach makes her a pleasure to work with. On the back of my experience as a candidate I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Drayton to others."
Feedback on the search: Helen Svensson, HR Director, Bazaar Group
"The Team at Drayton took the time to fully understand our business; our history, the journey, Investor expectations, future growth plans and the full requirement from the hire. They met with a number of our team, visited site and conducted their own research. This gave us a really robust platform to commence the headhunt process. Communication was frequent, informative, open and refreshingly down to earth. The experience of the team and their connection to candidates ensured a streamlined process which ultimately led to a successful outcome - the appointment of a new CEO.
In supporting the transition of the business Founder to a new CEO, the team at Drayton showed a level of empathy and appreciation of all angles of this appointment and were able to give us their guidance and advice on how to handle the transition.
The shortlisting and interview processes were timely and efficient and the candidates were well informed and briefed - which made final negotiations smooth and painless. To summarise, we would not hesitate to recommend Drayton to businesses looking to appoint key senior hires. The team are professional, knowledgeable and we felt strongly mirrored the values of our business."