Nick Beighton, the former ASOS chief executive, is returning to the online fashion sector at Secret Sales, the discounter for premium clothing beauty brands.
Sky News understands that Mr Beighton, who left ASOS last year, has been appointed chairman of Secret Sales as it targets an ambitious international expansion.
An announcement about his appointment, which will be regarded as a coup for the platform, will be made this week.
The company, which was bought by retail entrepreneurs Chris Griffin and Matt Purt just over two years ago, said it had recorded sales growth of over 150% during the last 12 months.
Secret Sales provides a distinctive offer to premium brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and Versace, allowing them to monetise their excess stock on its platform while retaining control of products’ branding and pricing.
Mr Beighton, who spent more than a decade at ASOS, initially as chief financial officer, described the Secret Sales proposition as “game-changing”.
“For too long, excess stock has been seen in terms of cash recovery using clearance channels that erode the brand,” he said.
“With Secret Sales, the industry finally has access to a positive strategy for non-full-price inventory.
“Businesses using Secret Sales can now make significant margin, attract new customers for their own full-price sales and maintain their brand equity through a simple, elegant and sustainable off-price solution that does not impact the retailer’s own full-price strategy.”
In total, Secret Sales said it had worked with more than 1600 brands and expected rapid growth in the current financial year.
It has more than 6.5m registered account-holders.
The company said it had secured additional funding beyond a multimillion pound capital injection last year, although it declined to provide further details of that.
Operating in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, it plans to expand to another 12 international markets over the next two years.
Mr Griffin, Secret Sales’ chief executive, said he was aiming for it to become “the world’s largest marketplace for non-full-price fashion”.
“Before Secret Sales Marketplace, there wasn’t a fully joined-up proposition for turning non-full-price stock into a boardroom positive,” he added.
