Who's who at Appleby Westward

Directors

Mark McCammond - Managing Director

I have SPAR imprinted in my background. Up until 2008, I was Retail Director at the Northern Ireland SPAR wholesaler Henderson’s, with responsibility for running the company's very successful SPAR stores, achieving the prestigious Retail Industry Awards ‘Convenience Chain of the Year’ two years running.

Since then I have been Regional Managing Director of Sainsbury Local developing the business to run over 150 stores and again winning the ‘Convenience Chain of the Year’ in successive years.

Tony Gummow - Finance & I.T. Director

Tony Gummow qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Cardiff in 1977. He then worked for manufacturing companies in South Wales for nine years prior to joining Appleby Westward in May 1986. Initially Chief Accountant, Tony was appointed Company Secretary in 1988 and has headed the Finance Team since 1997 as Finance Director.

Tony took on the responsibility of I.T. in the summer of 2011.

Nick Kenworthy - Sales & Marketing Director

Nick Kenworthy joined Appleby Westward in 2000 and has had a number of roles within the Sales team, being appointed to Sales Director in 2003. Previously Nick worked for Somerfield and the Whitbread Group.

Nick is responsible for the recruitment and development of the Independent retailer estate within the Appleby Westward Group territory. Nick also took on the responsibility of Marketing in the summer of 2011.

Nigel Taylor - Trading & Supply Chain Director

Nigel Taylor joined Appleby Westward in March 1998 as Trading Director. Prior to this Nigel was Buying Controller at Jacksons Family Foodstores based in Yorkshire for 10 years and before that as a Senior Buyer at Safeway, after working in finance as a trainee accountant. Nigel is also a member of the SPAR (UK) Ltd Group Buying Consortium which negotiates on behalf of the national SPAR network.

Nigel took on responsibility of Supply Chain in the summer of 2011

Jo Findlay - Human Resources Director

Jo Findlay is our most recent Director, joining earlier this year. Prior to joining Appleby Westward, Jo headed up the field HR team for RoadChef Motorways Limited where she worked for 8 years, and before that in a Retail HR role with Boots the Chemist.

Jo is a Graduate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Key Personnel

Vince Brown - Head of Sales

Vince joined Appleby Westward in 2010. After growing up in the SPAR family, where his Grandparents owned a SPAR store in Wiltshire for 15 years, he began his retail career at Fine Fare in 1983. He went on to work for companies including Gateway, Somerfield & the Co-Operative. Vince is responsible for a team of Regional sales managers supporting the independent SPAR shops throughout the Appleby estate.

Del Phillips - Head of Ambient Operations

Del Phillips joined the company in May 1996 as temporary Warehouse assembler. In August 1996 Del was transferred into the Chilled operation as an assembler and in 1999 was appointed as Chilled foods assembly Team Leader.

In 2000 the Chilled foods operation was transferred to Cullompton and Del returned to the Warehouse as an assembler. In 2001 Del was appointed as Warehouse Team Leader and held that position until 2006. In April 2006 Del was appointed as Warehouse Manager and in the September he was promoted to Head of Operations Ambient and is now responsible for all Operations here at Saltash.

Dave Houghton - Head of Multi Temperature Operations

Dave Houghton was appointed as Transport Manager for Appleby Westward in August 2002 and now heads the multi-temperature operation. Dave is the holder of the Company Operators licence. Prior to joining Appleby Westward, Dave held positions for over 10 years at Samworth Brothers Distribution Ltd. and Hazelwood Foods as Warehouse and Distribution Manager. Dave has an extensive knowledge of Logistics, Warehouse and Distribution in both the ambient and chilled / frozen sectors of the business.

Donna Forward - Head of Trading

Donna joined Appleby Westward in 1991 with the accounts dept, moving to Trading in 1998. As a Trading Manager she has been responsible for many different categories within the business prior to taking up this role in April 2010. Her team comprises Trading Managers, Stock Controllers, Trading Admin & Planogram production, covering Frozen Foods, Chilled Foods, Chilled and Ambient Fruit & Vegetables.

Andy Knight - Head of Store Development

Andy Knight started as a Merchandiser in 1987, and has held several different roles in the sales force before being appointed Head of Retail Development in 2010. For a period of time in the 90s Andy and his wife Debbie owned a SPAR store in Torquay. Andy is responsible for development within the Appleby Westward Group territory.

Nick Vivian - Head of Marketing & Customer Support

Nick Vivian joined Appleby Westward in August 2003. As head of Marketing Nick is responsible for SPAR and Appleby Westward’s marketing activity in the South West. This includes producing Point of Sale, creation of leaflets and advertising using various media throughout the South West. The majority of printed material is produced with our own resource Appleby Print Services which reports to Nick.

Mark Andrew - Head of I.T.

Mark joined Appleby Westward in 1998, having previously graduated at Middlesex University before returning to the South West and working for two large companies and a district council. Mark is responsible for the internal IT and Retail IT within the company, having become Head of IT in Jan 2010.

Simon Warren - Head of Store Recruitment

Simon joined Appleby Westward in 2000 and has held several roles within the Sales team throughout that time including Business Advisor for NAAFI and then the Independent stores in Dorset and Hampshire. Since 2005 he has been involved in Store Recruitment and has recently been appointed as Head of Recruitment for the entire Appleby Westward territory.

Tommie Quick - Retail I.T. Manager

Tommie has a wealth of experience within the I.T. industry having previously worked for large corporate companies such as Acer and Intel. After joining Appleby Westward in 2005 Tommie now heads up Retail I.T. Services developing, installing and maintaining the SPARPoS EPOS system within retail stores.

Bob Osborne - Print Manager

Bob Osborne joined Appleby Westward in October 2000 as Print Team Leader. Prior to that, Bob was Production Manager at Newscom Newspaper Group covering all aspects of print production, producing 35 weekly newspaper titles. Bob has worked within the print service since leaving school, initially serving a 5 year apprenticeship in commercial and bookwork print.

Alex Schute - Fresh Food Manager

Alex joined Appleby Westward Group Ltd in 2003 as a Business Advisor. Prior to this Alex had managed a SPAR in North Devon and worked for the NAAFI for 13 years. In 2007 Alex moved to Food Service, where she has developed the Food Service Team who advise and implement the Food to Go and Coffee offer within retailer stores.

Liz Coad - Events, Media & PR Co-ordinator

Liz joined Appleby Westward in May 2011 having previously worked at one of the company owned stores. After graduating from St Austell College with a BTEC Diploma in Business Administration, Liz moved into the retail sector where she worked as a duty manager before joining us as a member of the Food Service Team.

Having been involved in various in-store events, Liz is now responsible for implementing a PR strategy in the territory and co-ordinating events for Appleby Westward and SPAR in the local area.