Skip to content
Search
AI Powered
Please enter at least 3 characters.
Latest Stories

Bestway continues hiring spree, appoints two senior roles

Bestway continues hiring spree, appoints two senior roles
Richard Scrimgeour

Further to the recent announcement that Bestway Wholesale has made three senior appointments to its senior Trading Team. The wholesaler on Friday (28) announced two further appointments to its senior’ Operations and Symbol Teams building further strength into its business as looks to realise ambitious growth plans.

Adrian O’Brien, who has worked for Costcutter since 2013, will take up the role of Head of Symbol at Bestway Retail on a permanent basis after being seconded to this role earlier this year. Adrian, who began his career at Costcutter over 10 years ago, began as Head of Business Development in Northern Ireland before becoming Regional Controller of Northern Ireland, which was subsequently expanded to include Scotland and Northern England.


Adrian has over 20 years of experience in the retail industry having begun his career with Palmer and Harvey as a Symbol Manager before moving to Costcutter.

Adrian will head up the Bestway sales team, reporting directly to Retail Director, Mike Hollis.

Untitled 2 Adrian O’Brien

He will be responsible for the Symbol retail estate across Bestway Retail, from a leadership, sales, compliance, and growth perspective.

Richard Scrimgeour, formerly of Nisa, is joining Bestway Retail as Central Operations Director, also reporting to Retail Director, Mike Hollis. Richard will succeed Janine Tomkins who is leaving the business for a new role.

Richard previously worked at Nisa for 19 years, most recently as Head of Retail Operations and prior to that worked at a senior level at Shell UK, Whitbread PLC Punch Taverns and T&S Stores.

Richard will head up the central operations team, business support, customer services and communications. Richard will also lead on all major projects involving new store concepts, devising processes and training solutions to enable store teams to deliver world class retail operations.

Mike Hollis, Retail Director at Bestway said, "We are delighted to welcome Richard as Central Operations Director as he brings a wealth of retail experience to the role having worked previously worked for Nisa for nearly 20 years.

“Richard will a play an integral role within the team on the development and launch of our new store concepts being rolled out across the business.

“It’s with great pleasure to announce the promotion of Adrian as Head of Symbol, we know that he will continue to build on the strong relationships within his team to help grow the business of our symbol retailers even further.

“Richard and Adrian assume responsibility of these roles at an exciting time as we strengthen our strategic positioning in the market as enter a new era to cement our position as ‘home of choice for entrepreneurial retailers’.”

More for you

Co-op member shops for Aldi price-matched essentials like 85p milk in 2025 campaign
Photo: iStock

Co-op joins in Aldi price match race

Co-op is stepping up the price war in the convenience sector by rolling out its version of the Aldi price match pledge, which has been adopted by several of the supermarket multiples in recent years.

From Wednesday (26), the Co-op will start matching the discounter’s prices on over 100 everyday essentials, including fresh fruit, milk, eggs and bread.

Keep ReadingShow less
Riot Labs CEO Ben Johnson announces Chief Misinformation Officer role for vape industry in 2025

Vape industry’s ‘Chief Misinformation Officer’ role draws hundreds of applicants

Hundreds of potential candidates have applied for the vape industry’s first ever Chief Misinformation Officer job, according to the employer who created the role.

The job vacancy was opened through quit smoking missionaries, Riot Labs, in a bid to tackle the “flood” of misinformation on vaping in recent months.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lucky Saint 0.5% lager on draught in UK pub with Portman Group membership certificate

Lucky Saint makes history as Portman Group’s first AF beer member.

Lucky Saint joins Portman Group as first alcohol alternative member

The Portman Group has welcomed Lucky Saint as an associate member, making them the first alcohol alternative member company in our history.

Lucky Saint was launched in the UK in 2018 by its founder Luke Boase with a 0.5 per cent unfiltered lager product. Since then, it’s become one of the most recognised and popular alcohol alternative brands, now featuring on draught in over 1250pubs in the UK and expanding their range to include a 0.5 per cent hazy IPA in January 2024.

Keep ReadingShow less
UCLA researcher Lisa Lowe analyzes saliva for microplastics from chewing gum in 2025 study
Photo: iStock

Chewing gum may release microplastics, early study warns

Chewing gum releases hundreds of tiny plastic pieces straight into people's mouths, researchers said on Tuesday, also warning of the pollution created by the rubber-based sweet.

The small study comes as researchers have increasingly been finding small shards of plastic called microplastics throughout the world, from the tops of mountains to the bottom of the ocean - and even in the air we breathe.

Keep ReadingShow less