Travis Perkins appoints new COO of trade merchant business
Published: 25 March 2019 - Fiona Garcia
As part of the management restructure, Frank Elkins has been named as new chief operating officer for the group’s trade merchant businesses, moving from his role as divisional CEO of the group’s contract merchanting division.
Mr Elkins reports into CEO John Carter, and has been appointed with immediate effect, following Travis Perkins’ announcement of plans to simplify and focus on trade customers. As part of this restructure, the group is removing the company’s divisional structure “to reduce complexity, speed up decision making and reduce costs”.
Frank Elkins has been appointed COO of Travis Perkins Group's trade merchanting division with immediate effect
In his new role, he will oversee the running of Travis Perkins builders’ merchants, BSS, Benchmarx, Keyline and CCF. The operations combined generate more than £3.6billion in annual revenue and have a branch network of more than 1,000 nationwide.
Mr Elkins joined BSS Group in 2003 and rose from commercial director to managing director for BSS Industrial in 2005; and board director in 2009. Travis Perkins Group acquired BSS Group in 2010 and Mr Elkins was promoted to divisional CEO of the group’s contract merchanting division in 2013.
CEO John Carter said: “Frank has been instrumental in laying the foundations for our new structure, and has a clear vision, the energy and commitment to developing our trade merchanting organisation. He has he been in merchanting for over 30 years, eight of these with us. As Divisional CEO for our Contract Merchanting Division, when he was responsible for the leadership and strategy development of our Keyline, BSS and CCF businesses, he succeeded in growing sales and profits by nearly 50% over a five-year period. This is a fantastic track record!” explained John Carter.
Mr Elkins said of his new appointment: “We have a fantastic team of leaders at all levels, who have the passion and know how to ensure that our customer proposition is best in class. I want to make sure our Branch Managers and teams have everything they need to do their job well, so we can be the first choice for trade customers.
“In our industry, it’s all about relationships and service: strong and personal relationships between branches, customers, and our suppliers. We need to ensure that we continue to take away complexity and that our priorities across all functions are focused on delivering our vision of being the first choice for the trade.”