Bestway Wholesale is announcing a new board restructure following the decision by Younus Sheikh to move to a non-executive role within Bestway Wholesale, the second largest wholesale operator in the UK with 64 depots and a turnover in excess of £2.3bn.
Mr Sheikh, one of the original founding members of the business back in 1976, will continue to oversee the running of the Wholesale business bringing his guidance and wealth of expertise to support the management team going forward.
Taking over his role, Martin Race has been appointed Managing Director and will assume all day to day responsibility for the running of the Wholesale business.
Naser Khan, previously Finance Director, assumes the role of Chief Operating Officer handling Finance, IT, Legal, HR, Health & Safety, Property and Facilities moving forward.
Martin and Naser will be responsible for implementing the wholesale strategy and running the overall wholesale business going forward.
In other changes, Dawood Pervez replaces Martin as Trading Director after having been working closely with Martin over the last six months in preparation for the role.
From September Rizwan Pervez moves from Operations Director to a newly created post of Customer Liaison Director, while Paul Rowland will join the company to head up Operations.
Mr Sheikh said “It is important that as we continue to take this remarkable business forward we ensure we have the right management team and structure in place. In Martin we have the ideal candidate to take over the day-to-day running of the wholesale business. With an impressive track record, unrivalled man-management skills and the ability to foster lasting and collaborative relationships with suppliers, Martin, with the support of Naser in his new role of COO, will ensure the business continues to go from strength to strength. However, wholesale is in my blood and I will continue to guide and advise the senior management team.”
Martin comments “On behalf of everyone at Bestway and Batleys, I would like to thank Younus for his great leadership, vision and guidance over the last forty years – the last twelve of which he has steered us fantastically as Managing Director. We would not be where we are without him at the helm. He has been involved exclusively in the wholesale business for four decades and, in addition to his business skills, he is widely respected for his honesty, integrity and incredible dedication. We will continue to drive the business forward with these values at our heart, and I am honoured to receive his vote of confidence and support in taking over from him as Managing Director.”
Martin Race joined Batley in August 1988 and rose through the company to become Operation Director. When Bestway Group purchased the Batleys group in 2005 Martin continued in this role as Operations Director. In April 2013 Martin was appointed Operations Director of the Bestway Wholesale business before becoming Group Trading Director in 2014.
Naser Khan joined Bestway as Group Financial Accountant in 2002 and was soon appointed Financial Controller in February 2005. In April 2013, Naser was promoted to Finance Director and has played an instrumental role in professionalising the business, introducing more control, better technology and improved compliance to the Finance department.
Prior to joining Bestway in November 2002, Dawood Pervez worked for Linklaters, the pre-eminent global law firm, specialising in international corporate and structured finance work. Having held a number of key executive roles within Bestway, Dawood was elected to the Board of Directors in July 2004. Dawood was integral in the creation of Bestway Export before becoming Marketing Director in 2014. The past 6 months has seen him familiarise him with his new role and challenges by working closely with Martin Race as Deputy Trading Director.
Rizwan Pervez joined Bestway as a Financial Accountant in 1995. In Jan 2000, he was elected to the Board of Directors as Group Business Development Director and helped establish the company’s Best-one symbol group. Rizwan was appointed Operations Director in 2006 and served as Marketing Director in 2013, before returning once again to his previous role of Operations Director in 2014. He will now be responsible for building relationships with larger customers with the remit of driving their business and delivering a greater share of spend.
New Operations Director, Paul Rowland, heads up Operations from 5th September. Paul has a long and distinguished career including 10 years with ASDA where he was Operations Director for Central Operations and most recently Vice President of Retail North. Paul also spent over a decade running depots and as an Area Controller at Booker and Makro.
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