Gardening sundrires and wild bird care supplier Gardman has made two strategic appointments to its board of directors.
Stewart Hainsworth will join as chief executive officer from September, and Justin Young will take on the role of commercial director with immediate effect. Mr Hainsworth is a former main board director of the FTSE 100 listed Gallaher Group, with more than 16 years of general management and chief executive within the consumer goods market. Most recently he was chairman of Bravo Premium, before becoming ceo of Russian Standard Vodka.

Mr Hainsworth, who will be based in Gardman's head office in Moulton, said: "I am delighted to be joining at this exciting stage of the company's development and look forward to building the plans for future growth with the team at Gardman. Benefiting from the continued support from our investors and the strong trading history with our trading partners in the gardening sector, I'm confident that we can build on the already considerable success Gardman has enjoyed in the past."

Reporting directly to Mr Hainsworth, Justin Young's role of commercial director will involve continuing the development of the company's new trading strategy. "We are delighted to welcome Stewart and Justin to the company," explained Gardman chairman Jonathan Halford.

"These appointments represent the next step forward in our strategy of focusing on trading our core categories harder for the benefit of our customers and their consumers. We expect them both to make significant contributions to the future growth of our business."

Mr Young was previously trading director of the Shop Direct Group and supply chain director at Phones4U.