NEWS | Round-up
Dave Barber to retire as MD of Ideal Standard
IDEAL STANDARD has announced that UK and Ireland managing director Dave Barber is to retire after 20 years’ service and two stints in the top job.
Barber will step down from the role in May and will be succeeded by Lisa Whitfield, who joins the company from Interface, the worldwide commercial flooring company.
Barber has held a number of finance leadership positions, including finance director, over his two decades of service with Ideal Standard. Barber assumed the MD role in April 2020 from Stephen Ewer, who himself took it over from Jim Moore. Before that, Barber had stepped in as interim managing director after the departure
of previous MD Keith Boad. Barber is the fifth person to have held the MD role at Ideal Standard since 2010.
Barber was instrumental in the strategic consolidation of Ideal Standard’s brands, including the launch of the Atelier brand created in collaboration with Palomba Serafini Associati. He also led the introduction of Singular – the company’s new approach to specification. Lisa Whitfield drove a number of key initiatives to improve the customer journey during her time at Interface. Before that she spent 27 years at Newell Brands, including managing UK writing brands, such as Paper Mate, Parker and Sharpie.
Commenting on Whitfield’s app - ointment, Ideal Standard International chief executive Jan Peter Tewes said: “We are hugely grateful to Dave for his commitment to Ideal Standard for the past 20 years. His strong leadership and knowledge of our business have been invaluable in supporting our ongoing growth and ensuring we are in the strongest position for the future. Lisa brings a wealth of expertise to the role and we are looking forward to seeing the UK and Irish markets continue to thrive and succeed under her direction.”
Of her new role, Whitfield commen- ted: “This is a really exciting time to be joining Ideal Standard, with the company having made a number of
strategic decisions to bolster its portfolio, bringing together its innovative technology and design credentials to create high performance solutions that are constantly challenging the market. I am looking forward to working closely with the team to continue to develop and grow the business.”
Home improvements buck downward online sales trend
Worktop distributor gives ownership to employees
BLACKHEATH PRODUCTS, a Midlands-based worktop and decorative surface distributor owned by the same family for more than four generations, has become an Employee Owned Trust. Blackheath Products holds stock of over £7.5 million of worktops, decorative laminates and solid surfaces, which it distributes to kitchen centres, shop fitters and furniture manufacturers across the UK and Ireland. It has a turnover of £24m and employs 60 staff. Mark Murphy, managing director of Blackheath Products, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for all of us at Blackheath Products. The Foster family has owned the business for over 90 years and their decision to transition the company to an Employee Owned Trust is driven by a passion to keep jobs in the West Midlands and continue to grow as an independent business. Our focus is now on our shared, exciting future, with everyone working creatively together to develop new products and services to support our customers and suppliers.”
ONLINE RETAIL sales took another pasting in February, continuing the relentless downward trajectory that began in March 2021, but the home improvement sector was one of the few to see growth.
The latest Online Retail Sales Index from IMRG Capgemini revealed that sales year on year fell by 4.1%, while month on month sales were 7.8% down on January.
The home improvement category, however, fared better, with online sales in February up 2.4% month on month after a 19.6% increase in January over that month in 2022.
The figures for online sales as a whole were particularly disappointing, said IMRG Capgemini, as they followed February 2022’s record- breaking fall of 27.6% – the biggest monthly decline in the index’s history. The fall in sales between December and January was also sharper than
normal at 29.4%. Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight
director, at IMRG, said: “Following the pandemic boom in online sales growth, volumes have fallen away for a period of almost two years now. At some point in 2023, even though growth was not possible in February against the biggest decline ever from February 2022, we still think growth will return, even if it is very modest. The basket value shot up last year, and conversion collapsed accordingly, but those rates seem to have stabilised.”
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12 • April 2023
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