“New reality”
“Despite our robust results we are facing a new
reality. Consumer confidence is low in Belgium and The Netherlands and the
DIY-market is under pressure”, says Tony DeNunzio. That is a slight understatement, as in the first half year of the ongoing financial year Maxeda saw its
market shrink by 5.4% in The Netherlands and 0.9% in Belgium (on a comparable
basis).
“Therefore it is necessary to simplify our
business, to shorten the lines of decision making, to lower our costs and to
improve the implementation of our plans. With this in mind we are making some
important organisational changes”, says the CEO, under whose reign the group
changed from an overall trade group to a pure DIY-company – Maxeda sold among others
Claudia Sträter in 2009, V&D and La Place in 2010 and M&S Mode,
Hunkemöller and Bijenkorf in 2011.
From group CEO to strategic advisor
The biggest victim of the rearrangement is
George Adams, who joined the
company from Kingfisher and B&Q just 2.5 years ago. The 55 year-old Englishman,
who became CEO of Maxeda DIY Group in November of 2010 and was named CEO of the
entire Maxeda Retail Group, will now become strategic advisor. DeNunzio will
now take the reigns as ‘executive president’.
“By simplifying the central organisation and
the integration of formats the central role of George has become less
necessary. He will become a strategic advisor of the group and will no longer
be CEO of Maxeda DIY Group”, says DeNunzio.
This move is far from a complete surprise: in the February
issue of the RetailDetail magazine, Jorg Snoeck already pointed at the fact that since
the arrival of Erik Haegeman as CEO of Brico there was too much talent at the
Maxeda-top to be maintainable.
John Colley new CEO Praxis
The second big change is the appointment of
John Colley as CEO of Praxis, one of four chains within the group with about
140 locations in The Netherlands. Colley (ex-Screwfix and ex-B&Q) has
been taking a close look at the assortment and the supplier portfolio of Maxeda
DIY Group as chief commercial officer. “In a short time, John has created an
organisation that has improved our sourcing in Asia and has strongly
contributed to the development of our own brands”, says Tony DeNunzio.
Today Maxeda DIY Group has over 360 locations
(including franchises), 6,000 employees and over a million customers each week.
Tony DeNunzio talks about the success of the group, but also how they can still
improve in the upcoming April issue of the RetailDetail magazine.
