Unitas Wholesale has appointed David Cooke to the newly created role of chief operating officer.
Cooke joins the buying group from Spar wholesaler AF Blakemore, where he held the position of group commercial director for the past three-and-a-half years.
In his new role as COO, Cooke will assume executive responsibility for the trading, commercial, marketing and retail teams. He will join the business in September ahead of the group’s annual conference in Marbella later in the month.
“David’s appointment strengthens the Unitas executive team and underscores our commitment to continuous improvement and future-proofing the business,” said Unitas chairman Dr Jason Wouhra.
”Aligning trading, marketing, commercial and retail under a COO puts the group in an even stronger position to respond quickly to market opportunities, and to support members with best-in-class propositions.”
Cooke’s appointment comes amid a wider reshuffle of the Unitas executive team, which will see managing director John Kinney moving to the position of CEO.
It follows the recent appointment of Gurms Athwal as trading director in May. Athwal will report directly to Cooke and has been appointed to the Unitas board with immediate effect.
Kinney said: “David has excellent experience and a track record of delivering growth through collaborative supplier and member relationships, which makes him the ideal leader to accelerate our ‘Fitter, Fairer, Faster’ strategy.
“Together with Gurms and the wider leadership team, David will help us deliver incremental benefits for members year on year and provide a strong return on investment for our supplier partners.”
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