NTAW revises leadership team

National Tyre & Wheel Limited (NTAW), the largest independent tyre and wheel wholesaler in Australia and New Zealand, has made several changes to its leadership team. The company states that these and other appointments made over the past year will help it “set a new benchmark in customer experience” that will “underwrite further growth.”

Colin Skead, who joined NTAW subsidiary Exclusive Tyre Distributors (ETD) as its chief executive officer in Australia in 2019, has been appointed to the newly-created role of chief operating officer. This position is primarily concerned with managing NTAW’s operation with a focus on how each business unit interacts with the others as well as how each business unit interacts with each of the shared services business units.

Skead is responsible for ensuring these interactions are efficient, cost effective and contribute to improvements in NTAW’s overall profitability in the short term and the maintainability of those profits in the long term. Leaders of the company’s shared services units will report to him. The new COO is also responsible for the management and successful execution of key business improvement programmes, such as the sales and operations planning rollout, revitalised marketing activity, NTAW’s new ERP platform, training, culture alignment and “operational” synergy capture.

Other appointments

Simon Billington, previously the chief executive officer of ETD in New Zealand, expands his remit to include day-to-day management of ETD in both Australia and New Zealand.

Nick Southon, formerly general manager of government at Tyres4U, has been appointed general manager of the Tyreright retail business.

NTAW has also appointed Hugh McMurchy to the role of company secretary, effective 1 July 2021.

Pivotal 12-18 months

NTAW states it has “completed the recruitment of all key executives” for its shared services divisions. As a result, it has also completed the formation of the new leadership group to drive the business following the Tyres4U acquisition. The team is organised according to the accompanying chart.

“The next 12-18 months will be pivotal in the development of the company,” comments Peter Ludemann, managing director of NTAW. “We are focused on leveraging the diversity and scale built over the past seven years by executing projects including cultural alignment, a new ERP platform, S&OP processes, consolidation of warehouses, cross-selling products, more efficient and cost-effective logistics, growth into new market segments as well as increased promotional activity.

“Our aim is to set a new benchmark in customer experience for the industry that will underwrite further growth well into the future. Our prospects for succeeding in this endeavour have been greatly enhanced by the appointments we have made to the leadership team over the past 12 months,” Ludemann concludes.

NTAW is headquartered in Brisbane and operates 26 distribution centres, together with four subcontracted warehouses, in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Source: NTAW