Alex Schwald will take on the position of Senior Director of IT at Takko Fashion, The Retail Optimiser learnt. He is moving from MediaMarktSaturn to the radically verticalised fashion retailer. His exact start date is not yet clear but will be in February or March 2026. In his new role, he will report directly to the Managing Directors of the fashion company.
“We are very pleased that Alex Schwald is joining our company as Senior Director of IT,” said Takko press spokesperson Christina Scholz in response to a query from The Retail Optimiser on behalf of her company: “With over 15 years of experience in successful IT projects and the retail business, he will drive forward the digital transformation at Takko together with the entire IT team. We warmly welcome him to the Takko team.”
Takko has thus been able to fill the IT management position, which had only been filled on an interim basis since June this year following the departure of CIO Bastian King. Alex Schwald comes from MediaMarktSaturn, where he has been Vice President of Technology since 2021. Prior to that, he spent 14 years in senior IT positions at home shopping channel QVC and its parent company.
Vacant position since Bastian King’s departure
Bastian King has since joined materials manufacturer Covestro, where he has taken on the role of Head of Application Platform Services. He joined Takko from Schwarz IT in March 2023, where, as Managing Director, he was responsible for the difficult task of merchandise management systems, among other things. The former national IT manager of Aldi Süd in Australia, Bastian King, joined the Schwarz Group in March 2015 as IT manager at Kaufland.
Like many retail companies, Takko has had very painful experiences with the merchandise management systems available on the market. Over time, two SAP Retail implementations at the radically vertically integrated fashion retailer have failed. In the end, Takko introduced Microsoft Dynamics 365 (formerly Navision or Nav) with Avanade as its implementation partner.
Merchandise management challenges
However, according to insiders, this system continues to pose considerable challenges for Takko, so that Oracle Retail has now been brought into play as a new solution. However, no decision will be made on whether the fashion retailer will start a new merchandise management system project until Alex Schwald has settled into his new role as IT manager.
