Download PDFIn March we communicated plans to realise synergies across the Northern European commercial activities by creating a single commercial business unit from the four existing commercial business units (covering employees in seven countries). This notice is to update you on the progress of those plans.
Consultations completed
We have now completed the consultations with all impacted people and the new Northern European structure will take effect from 1 April 2020. As there were several vacancies across Northern Europe, the change impacted just two roles in the TFAC area. This is in line with our decision to stop all TFAC activities in all countries outside the USA, Great-Britain and France.
Clearly this period of consultation and change has been coupled with the uncertainties created by Covid-19. I would, therefore, like to acknowledge and thank everyone involved or impacted by the project for their professionalism and collaboration, not only during the consultation period but also in the handover process which is now taking place.
Northern Europe structure
As a reminder the new structure is as follows:
• A single business unit covering the Netherlands, DACH, Sweden and Eastern Europe led by Piet van Nassau as the Northern European Commercial Director.
• For reasons of retailer and linguistic alignment, the Belgian market is now managed by the French Commercial team, although for the short-term, customer service for Belgian customers will stay within Northern Europe until it can be accommodated within the Le Mans customer service team.
• For reasons of business model synergies, Tommy Dahl who is responsible for the “Nordics Export” markets will report to Jake Kersey within the International business unit.
Business Development
With this change in Northern Europe, we have taken the opportunity to redirect Jasper Van der Wurff into a newly created business development role. We recognise that beyond the growth of our brands in the core markets we also need to explore and capture potential areas of business growth outside of the current business and portfolio, whether this be through strategic partnerships with third party brands, with our key retailers or via other collaboration opportunities.
Jasper will commence this role from 1 April following the completion of his handover and we are excited about the opportunities that this could create for Colart as a whole.
We believe that by creating this integrated business unit across the Northern Europe market, we will be better set to service our customers and develop our brands across the region.
If you have any additional questions please speak to your line manager or if you prefer, you can post your questions to people@colart.co.uk
Gail Pasquier
Chief Commercial Officer