Bonningtons buying team expands to support rapid growth

The category buying team at Bonningtons is expanding to meet the needs of the business as it continues to exceed its range expansion and sales growth targets.

This month saw the appointment of Craig Bethel, 36, who joins from Virgin Media and will support Quality Control Manager, Damian Wielgat as a Quality Administrator in the UK office. He joins two other recent appointments to the team – Heather Turner, 28 who was previously a stock control manager for Celsa Steel and Alex Aitcheson, 27 a buyer from Sports Direct who have taken on category responsibilities for the Animal, Leisure, Gardening and DIY categories.

Together with two in purchasing administration and three graphic designers, the Category Buying  team is now up to a full strength of ten, headed up by Kate Smalley who took up the senior management role this year after 5 years with Bonningtons.

Commenting on the growth of her team Kate said “We have very ambitious growth plans for the next couple of years and I’ve recently been focussed on getting the right team in place to help us deliver. I’m very pleased that we have been able to recruit such a diverse and experienced team of young professionals.”

Kate has launched a number of new brands into the Bonningtons portfolio in the past year, and the team has further plans for the expansion and development of new ranges in camping and outdoor leisure, DIY and torches in the immediate future. Early in 2017 there will also be new brands in home décor as well as a full brand review in birdcare.

“The range has grown to more than 2000 lines over the past few months, and I expect it to continue to grow at least as fast over the coming months. The team is going to be very busy!”