Gardman has appointed Stewart Hainsworth as its new CEO and Justin Young as Commercial Director. These are the latest high-profile appointments at a major gardening firm following former Notcutts boss Andy King taking control of Dobbies, which was announced only last week.
Stewart, who will take over Gardman at the beginning of September, is a former main Board Director of the FTSE 100 listed Gallaher Group and has gained over 16 years of general management and Chief Executive experience within the Consumer Goods market with both publicly listed and private equity backed businesses.
More recently he served as Chairman of the private equity backed “Ready to Drink” business, Bravo Premium, before becoming the CEO of Russian Standard Vodka distributing into both Independent and Multiple retail channels.
He brings to Gardman an enormous wealth of experience in branded consumer goods in both the UK and International markets, together with a strong understanding of multi-channel distribution challenges.
Based at Gardman's head office in Moulton, Stewart commented: “I am delighted to be joining at this exciting stage of the company’s development and look forward to building the plans for future growth with the team at Gardman.
"Benefiting from the continued support from our investors and the strong trading history with our trading partners in the gardening sector, I’m confident that we can build on the already considerable success Gardman has enjoyed in the past.”
Reporting directly to Stewart Hainsworth, Justin Young is appointed as Commercial Director and is tasked with continuing the development of the company’s new trading strategy.
In recent months Gardman has reinvented itself in what is today an extremely competitive market. The company’s early success was built on its philosophy of making sure its wide range of products was very competitively priced and then further driving sales through excellent promotions. Gardman has returned to these trading roots and, using its acknowledged industry and retailing expertise, is working collaboratively with its agents and customers as they increase sales volumes and boost profits.
“We are delighted to welcome Stewart and Justin to the company,” explained Jonathan Halford, Chairman of Gardman. “These appointments represent the next step forward in our strategy of focusing on trading our core categories harder for the benefit of our customers and their consumers. We expect them both to make significant contributions to the future growth of our business.”
Justin also brings a wealth of relevant commercial experience, most notably in his previous roles as Trading Director of the Shop Direct Group and Supply Chain Director at Phones4U where he was responsible for a £500m purchasing budget. Prior to this Justin achieved much success as Managing Director of Mikey, the Jewellery retailer, where he managed a very diverse product range and developed the brand globally. His role takes immediate effect.
