SHS Group - which owns brands including WKD, Merrydown and Shloer, and distributes a wide range of products for major fmcg suppliers - has shaken up its senior management team.

The company said the moves, which take effect immediately, were designed to strengthen its management structure and put more focus on sales and marketing.

Peter Butler, MD of the sales & marketing GB division - which handles distribution, sales and marketing of brands including Listerine, Chewits and Douwe Egberts - is being promoted to the new role of group divisional MD. He will have overall responsibility for two of the group’s four divisions: Sales & Marketing GB and Drinks.

Sales & Marketing GB sales director Marcus Freer takes on the MD role vacated by Butler and will build the agency side of the business while forging closer relationships with the drinks division to maximise opportunities for SHS’s own brands.

In the drinks division, Finn O’Driscoll - previously joint MD with Karen Salters - becomes sole MD and takes on responsibility for marketing, NPD and international sales and ops. Salters is moving to a “new strategic position” in SHS.

The changes would help the business share best practice and enable it to deliver a more efficient service for brand owners, said SHS Group MD Michael Howard. “In terms of the brands we own, the changes will allow us to drive growth and place a greater emphasis on NPD.”

SHS said its £400m turnover was equally split between the distribution of brands for other businesses - including Johnson & Johnson, Heineken and Reckitt Benckiser - and sales of its own brands.

The other two divisions in SHS are sales & marketing Ireland and herbs & spices.

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