By James Wells

BRISBANE: Betta Stores Limited (BSL) has announced a restructure of its marketing and buying departments following recent departures including general manager – retail, David Hazell last week.

BSL CEO Guy Houghton said in a press release today that the reorganisation of its marketing and buying departments was in-line with its previously stated focus on the core business of franchising.

“With the renewed focus on delivering the best possible service to our franchisees and the ongoing divestment of some of our company-owned stores, a number of key personnel changes are necessary to provide the appropriate platform for our future growth,” Houghton said.

According to the statement, the role of BSL chief operation officer, Ian Mursell, in line with the company’s new strategic focus.

“Having spent most of his time working with the corporate stores, Ian will shortly return to managing the daily operations of BSL freeing CEO Guy Houghton from the day-to-day issues allowing him to focus on strategy and development.”

Gerald Squire has been promoted to general manager – marketing with operational responsibility for all merchandising, marketing and advertising functions of the group.

Since joining BSL, the former Harvey Norman whitegoods coordinator, has been promoted from whitegoods buyer to the head of the buying department earlier this year.

Julieanne Smith has been promoted to marketing manager of BSL and will be responsible for developing and directing advertising and brand marketing strategies for the group.

In other appointments, Kathy Hagan has been promoted to advertising manager responsible for implementing advertising and promotional programs for group retailers, Mark Blond has been promoted to IT buyer responsible for all IT purchasing for the group, Ian Van Englen has taken on the additional responsibilities of furniture buyer and corporate services, Sean Baldwin has become the merchandising assistant – portable appliances and Gemma Atkins has been appointed to the position of merchandising assistant for information technology and superstores.