Monday 4th February 2019
Bestway Wholesale makes changes to senior leadership team to drive continued growth
Bestway Wholesale, the foodservice distributor and independent retail expert, has announced a series of changes to its evolving senior leadership team, following the recent appointment of Dawood Pervez to managing director of Bestway Wholesale.
Andrew Cresswell has been appointed to the position of Chief Retail Officer, Bestway Retail and will report into Pervez, looking after the companies’ owned and franchise stores including Bargain Booze, Select Convenience, Central Convenience and Wine Rack.
Andrew brings a wealth of retail experience joining from MRH, the largest independent fuel retailer in the UK, where he was responsible for all strategic and operational aspects of the business in his role as Managing Director, Retail. Andrew also held multiple senior positions whilst working at Midcounties Co-Operative for 14 years, prior to which he worked in store management at Somerfield, Tesco and Safeway.
Andrew takes over from David Robinson, who announced that he will leave Bestway Retail in 2019. David joined Conviviality Retail in July 2016 and has been instrumental in supporting the transition to Bestway Retail since the acquisition in April last year, helping to stabilise and strengthen the business, improve availability, retail margin and introducing an enhanced Franchisee incentive plan.
Tony Holmes has been appointed to a new role of Retail Director, Bestway Wholesale, overseeing the retail sales proposition for best-one Symbol Group, retail multiple accounts and Bestpets, the pet retail division of Bestway Wholesale. The new role has been established to give independent retailer and pet retail facing teams, a clearer focus.
Holmes, who joined Bestway Wholesale as Sales Director in February 2016, also assumes responsibility for retail business development from James Hall who announced retirement from his role as Business Development Director at Bestway Wholesale as of June 2019.
David Livingstone has stepped up to a new role of Head of Catering as part of the restructure, in a bid to drive further growth for Bestway Wholesale in the catering market through collect catering and BB Foodservice delivered customers.
Ashar Rehman has also stepped up to the role of Head of Operations, from his previous role as Regional Operations Manager. Ashar brings a wealth of experience, having held positions within Bestway for over 30 years and this role will be pivotal to facilitating excellent service for all customers through the companies’ network of 65 depots.
Dawood Pervez, Managing Director, Bestway Wholesale said: “We’re committed to ensuring we always deliver the best service to our customers, thus providing a clear solution for everyone; whether that’s a Franchise proposition through Bestway Retail, Symbol Group and Retail Club through Bestway Wholesale and Bestway and Batleys Cash & Carry’s, full-service delivered catering through BB Foodservice and Drinks Express or a collect catering range for customers in depot.
“At the end of the day, we want to provide customers great service and excellent prices on the products they need, and splitting the retail and catering elements into two separate teams, and having Bestway Retail reporting into me, will enable all of our brands to be aligned and focused for the benefit of customers. It’s also great to have been able to both attract new talent and to have recognised our employees by appointing from within.”