The Channel has confirmed with Renaissance that its central player in the company’s retail transformation, Director of Retail, Eddie McGrory is next to leave the company.

McGrory is returning to Brisbane, Australia with his family, for an undisclosed role with Vodafone Hutchison.

At the same time Jamie Barton Group Store Manager of MagnumMac Auckland has been promoted to General Manager of MagnumMac, the company has confirmed.

It’s no secret that CEO Richard Webb’s new direction for the company has been strongly focused on retail. Although the plan for the new YooBee brand hasn’t been fully unveiled (the YooBee website is now live though), Renaissance will focus on creating in-store experiences around creative interests such as movie making, photography and graphic design.

Webb had also expressed interest in the new stores featuring a wine bar concept, but this was later dismissed by other members of the team.

The initial plan also involved re-branding the MagnumMac and Student IT stores to YooBee stores, which would sell both Mac and Windows equipment. But Apple may have put the kibosh on these plans, with its policy that Apple Premium Resellers can’t actively sell Windows-based products in the same store.

This important intricacy was clarified with high-profile Australian Apple Reseller NextByte encountering the same problem, when it wanted to expand into the Windows camp a few years ago.

Are Renaissance’s retail plans already under pressure following the departure of McGrory?