It is with real sadness that I write, that Paul Reeves who up until a few weeks ago was the Chief Operating Officer for Betta Home Living retail group, has been diagnosed with cancer, resulting in Betta restructuring their senior management team.
I first got to know Paul, a former South African, when he transformed Lucky Goldstar to become LG, living close to me in Mosman, NSW, we often met up for a drink at the local pub and a passionate conversation about consumer electronics and Rugby often followed.
A keen rugby follower, we made it a regular practise to go out and watch the All Blacks Vs Australia play, Reeves was also a passionate supporter for South Africa.
His ground-breaking advertising and hard-core marketing activities, not only transformed LG, it was the reason why the Korean Company became a house hold brand in Australia so quickly.
He was also a former contributor to ChannelNews when he quit LG to set up Octane Marketing a consulting Company for brands and distributors.
In 2011 took on the role as Sales and Marketing Director at European appliance maker Beko.
In 2014, he teamed with his former LG sales Director Graeme Cunningham who had become the CEO of the BSR Group owned stores Betta Electrical.
Graeme Cunningham CEO Betta Electrical
Taking on the role of Group Manager Business Development, Reeves passionately moved to transform Betta.
Promoted in late 2014, to Chief Operating Officer, Reeves was working closely with Cunningham and the management team at Betta to introduce new store formats which are currently being rolled out in Queensland, when he was diagnosed following a visit to his GP.
In a memo to staff following the hospitalisation of Reeves, Cunningham outlined “A structure for the future”.
He said “We are continuing to grow across the business both in sales and membership. The future for retail is positive, but it will become more competitive as we see the expansion of the new JB/GGuys stores, consolidation of furniture retailers as well as the changes that Amazon will bring to our industry”.
Cunningham, announced that the role of Chief Merchandising Manager, held by Gavin Carter, will be removed from the business and Gavin will become the Chief Operating officer, with Merchandising, Retail services and Furniture reporting to him.
The IT department will now report to CFO, Stuart Nash.
Mark West will now report into CMO, Adrian Mitchell.
“These changes mean that there are 3 new positions All of these will be reporting into Gavin Carter as COO” Cunningham said.
Group Manager- Furniture and Bedding, is Steve Urquhar.
Roles for Group Manager, Retail Services and Merchandising are still to be announced.
Our prayers and thoughts are with Paul’s family and the management team at Betta who have been affected by this devastating news.
