Exclusive: Habitat CIO resigns

Jacques Dekock leaves the retailer to return to South Africa

Dekock leaves Habitat in the middle of a major web project

Home furnishing company Habitat's chief information officer has quit to return to his native South Africa.

Jacques Dekock's resignation was prompted by his decision to be closer to his family. He will be joining Cape Town-based specialist retailer Clicks as group head of IT.

Clicks operates a range of retail brands such as The Body Shop, with a footprint of over 500 stores in southern Africa.

Dekock joined Habitat in 2005, following stints in consultancy at IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He leaves in the middle of a major IT project to set up of a fully transactional web site.

Investment in back-office systems such as SAP took a back seat during Dekock's tenure so the business could focus on the web site.

It is hoped the site will help sell products that can't be displayed in some stores owing to limited floor space. The company is also looking to boost the online retail part of the business generally.

Earlier this year, Dekock told Computing one of Habitat's main IT challenges has to do with staff.

“The retail sector has been affected by the recession, coupled with a reduction in interesting technical projects, which makes motivating staff quite difficult,” he said at the time.

The search for a replacement is under way.