Following a restructuring at Bestway Wholesale, retail director Tony Holmes and director of trading for retail & own label, Edward Smeaton, have left their roles.
The restructure will leave Bestway Wholesale to focus on the company’s wholesale, catering and pet businesses. It will also mean a change in the support retailers receive, giving Bestway Retail the full responsibility of supporting franchise shops and company-owned stores, alongside Best-one and Bargain Booze symbol group retailers.
After three years at Bestway, Smeaton has now joined Lidl as its head of own label and brand buying with immediate effect. Meanwhile, Holmes leaves after joining the company in 2016 and was recently promoted from sales director in January.
A spokeswoman said: “We have been working closely with our supplier partners to harmonise terms for Bestway Retail and Wholesale and have increased the size of our chilled distribution centre so that all customers benefit from better chilled supply, enhanced ranges and longer shelf-life on delivered chilled products.
“We continue to strengthen our leadership team, as evidenced by the recent appointments of Andy Cresswell to chief retail officer and Kenton Burchell to trading director of Bestway Wholesale over the last few months, as well as continuing to integrate and align our recent acquisitions into one strong Bestway business.”
