Retail veteran Solomon Lew is urging Myer to prove its recent claims that the department store chain’s fortunes are turning around.

Lew, who through investment vehicle Premier Investments is Myer’s largest shareholder, says Myer should reveal its first-quarter sales numbers at its strategy day on November 1.

“Premier believes Myer needs to fully inform the market of its first-quarter sales and profit performance at its strategy day so that the market can determine whether there has been any progress made in addressing the sales and profit decline at Myer,” Premier said in a statement on Monday.

The company said it has noted Myer chairman-elect Garry Hounsell’s recent comment in media reports that Myer’s turnaround plan is beginning to show “green shoots”.

It said Premier will look to see if there are any changes to the ‘new Myer’ turnaround strategy.

Premier Investments bought a 10.77 per cent stake in Myer in March, which has lost more than a third of its value due to Myer’s sliding share price amid its weak financial performance.

Myer’s statutory net profit dropped 80 per cent to $11.94 million in the 2017 financial year due to writedowns and a fall in revenue.

Last month, Premier asked for Myer’s list of shareholders in a sign it may push for a seat on the board of the struggling department store.

Shares in Myer were down 0.67 per cent to 74.5 cents shortly before Monday’s close while Premier’s shares were flat at $13.15.

Former Bulgari exec joins board

Myer today announced it has appointed a former managing director of luxury fashion brands including Bulgari to its board.

Julie Ann Morrison will join the board as a non-executive director as part of a leadership overhaul in response to complaints from major shareholder Solomon Lew about the group’s turnaround progress.

Morrison is the former managing director of Bulgari in the UK and Australia, and former managing director of FJB Australia, which held distribution rights for Gucci and Guess in Australia.

Chairman-elect Hounsell said the department store retailer’s board believes that as a result of her wide experience in fashion and retail, Morrison will “be an excellent addition to the team.”

Morrison is an advisory board member and consultant to Carla Zampatti Pty Ltd (including the Carla Zampatti and Bianca Spender brands) and a fashion business curator and advisor to the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas, which is a non-profit project to advance engagement in fashion culture and ideas.

Since February 2016, Morrison has been a non-executive director of subsidiary boards of Myer which operate the sass & bide fashion brand,

In July this year, Morrison was appointed non-executive chair of speciality brands Australia, a Myer subsidiary board which provides governance and strategic oversight to the sass & bide, Marcs and David Lawrence fashion businesses.

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