the diginomica network podcast - Holland & Barrett CFO discusses tech investments and latest earnings

Wellness retailer Holland & Barrett today announced its annual results for the full year 2025, which included an investment of £43.5 million in technology development. Group CFO Vineta Bajaj is responsible for change and joined the diginomica network podcast to discuss last year, but also the retailer’s focus on building its own technology stack.

Holland & Barrett, which operates in the Benelux, Ireland, and UK regions of Europe, invested £124 million in the full year 2025. Revenues grew by 11% year-on-year to £981 million for the financial year that ended 30 September 2025. The retailer said this was the third consecutive year of double-digit growth and a revenue increase of 35% over the past three years. Speaking to the diginomica network podcast, Group CFO Vineta Bajaj said the business was still loss-making.

Bajaj says the £43.5 million technology investment provides it with the tools and infrastructure to meet the demands of today’s omni-channel retail environment, she tells the podcast:

The way that customers shop means you have to adapt. You have to have a store, they are 70% of our revenue, but just because they come to the store and make a purchase, they may not come back for a refill, they may go to the App or the website. So there are three facias.

There are further facias that a wellness retailer has to consider, including TikTok and Amazon. She adds:

For us, it is about making sure that we have the right infrastructure from technology and supply chain to make sure that wherever the customer is, they can get their product of choice.

This is about how do we build the right muscle to scale fast in a changing retail environment.

Transformation programme

Holland & Barrett has self-developed its in-store, stock management, and point of sale (POS) technologies. Asked why they have taken this path and not opted for off-the-shelf technologies or partnered with a system integrator, Bajaj tells the podcast:

When you outsource and want a change, you go into a queue, so you end up managing a provider that is managing the software. That makes it really hard when you are trying to be fast on the high street and adapt to trends. So having your own ecosystem is really important.

During 2025, Holland & Barrett retired its legacy IBM AS400 platform with the self-developed platform. She says of creating a warehouse management platform:

“You can buy them, but you will spend six months tailoring it and then I am beholden to a provider and have a fee. If we then want to change in three years' time, it is a major transformation programme.

Bajaj discusses with the podcast her remit, which includes change management, procurement, legal, tax, supply chain, warehouse automation, and of course, finance alongside the organisation’s technology strategy. We ask about the role CFOs will have to take in transforming organisations, as well as the customer experience and the technology team at Holland & Barrett.

Bajaj is a passionate technologist running the finances of a leading European retailer. Will there be more like her in the years to come?