CHS refocuses after merger with Merisel

Distribution Merisel buy prompts CHS to restructure its board.

CHS Electronics has restructured its UK board of directors in an attempt to focus its senior management team's attention on core areas of business, following the acquisition of Merisel Europe.

According to Peter Rigby, director of marketing and communications at CHS, the distributor has been pre-occupied with integrating the Merisel unit into CHS in the UK, and in the process has drawn many members of the board away from their designated roles. Rigby was previously responsible for vendor relations, sales and marketing for the networking and storage divisions.

One of the elements of the restructure is the fusion of the vendor relations brief and Jan Lawford's appointment as director of vendor relations. Previously in charge of vendor relations, sales and marketing for the software and peripherals divisions, Lawford will now be responsible for all vendor relationships.

'Jan and I did identical jobs, and in some cases were duplicating our efforts, especially in sales and marketing,' Rigby said.

Mark Todd returns to the sales field as director of sales after setting up various back office processes to facilitate the integration of CHS and Merisel. He will be responsible for increasing CHS' growth in corporate, mail-order and small to medium-enterprise markets and will be supported by Paul Best who has been named director of major accounts.

Rigby denied there had been any redundancies as part of the board shake-up. 'We just rejigged the board. Aside from the normal periodical resignations from the sales force, there have been no job losses.'

He added that CHS is continually looking at prospective acquisitions in the UK, but so far has no announcement to make regarding any particular company.