Bensons and Harveys restructure leadership teams
Following the appointment of new chief executive Stuart Machin, the company behind Bensons for Beds and Harveys has announced a raft of changes to its leadership team.
In a statement, Machin said: “Having joined the business eight weeks ago, I have now had the chance to review our leadership structure and identify a number of additions, changes, and improvements that I believe will help us achieve our commercial objectives.”
Previously managing director of Bensons, Alan Williams has been appointed to the new role of chief operations officer for Bensons while Dean Simpson has been given the new position of chief operations officer for Harveys. With responsibility for leading the stores and implementing strategies, Williams and Simpson will also oversee the implementation of the customer and people plans, the visual merchandising strategy, and driving sales performance.
In addition, Henry Swift has been appointed to the new position of chief customer officer after previously being interim marketing director. In his new role, he will be responsible for the end to end customer journey, whilst continuing to lead marketing and public relations. He will also take on responsibility for the customer services team.
Meanwhile, David O’Connor and Mark Cort will continue in their roles of commercial director for Harveys and commercial director for Bensons respectively.
Kalwant Singh will also continue in his current role as supply chain and logistics director while Chily Fachler has been appointed to the position of chief information officer.
In addition, Mark Jackson has been appointed finance director for both brands after joining the business in August, and Debbie Jones will continue in her role as the newly titled head of people, talent and development.
Meanwhile Jamie Danby, head of strategic programmes, will now report directly to Machin and Chris Brougham has been appointed to a new role of project manager.
The company has also made a number of changes to its operations team.
Machin also said the company will be launching an internal talent development programme to give staff the opportunity to develop their careers within Steinhoff company brands and the wider group.
He added: “We will ensure we develop and support women in leadership. I have already spoken to many of our female leaders and I will be chairing a women in leadership programme over the course of this year to ensure we improve on our gender diversity throughout the business.”
