Bestway makes more senior appointments as part of growth plans

Bestway Wholesale has made further senior appointments to help deliver its growth plans.

Andrew Kenny, the new trading director of Bestway Retail.

In addition to recruiting Les Mohammed and Jim Brown, both ex-Unitas, to its trading team, Bestway has appointed Andrew Kenny as trading director of Bestway Retail and Robbie Moore as retail commercial manager.

Kenny was previously general manager commercial at Coles Group in Australia, and prior to that, he was a senior director for various product categories at Asda. In his new role, he is responsible for refining and enhancing Bestway’s proposition for off-licence and convenience sectors, focusing on franchisees and retailers to support sales. He will replace Mike Owen who is leaving the business at the end of the year.

Moore, who reports to Kenny, was formerly head of trading at SPAR Scotland wholesaler and retailer CJ Lang & Son.

Commenting on their appointments, group trading director Kenton Burchell said: “We’re very excited to be welcoming this exceptional pool of talent to our business. With these new appointments we are now set up to enter a new era in our Bestway journey to cement our position as the number one choice for independent retailers.”

Adrian O’Brien, the now-permanent head of symbol of Bestway Retail.

Bestway has also announced that Adrian O’Brien has been made head of symbol at Bestway Retail on a permanent basis after being seconded to this role earlier this year.

O’Brien joined Bestway from Costcutter, where he spent a decade, latterly as regional controller of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Northern England. He also previously worked for Palmer & Harvey as a symbol manager.

Bestway has also appointed Richard Scrimgeour as central operations director of Bestway Retail. Scrimgeour spent nearly 20 years at Nisa Retail, latterly as sales & transformational lead, and he succeeds Janine Tomkins who is leaving the business.

Scrimgeour’s new responsibilities include heading up the central operations team, business support, customer services and communications. He will also lead on all major projects involving new store concepts, devising processes and training solutions to enable store teams to deliver world-class retail operations.

Both O’Brien and Scrimgeour report to retail director Mike Hollis, who commented: “Richard and Adrian assume responsibility of these roles at an exciting time as we strengthen our strategic positioning in the market.”