Fads chief quits for top Boots role

Peter Roach, the managing director at loss-making DIY chains Homestyle and Fads, has quit to become director of marketing and international development at Boots.

Roach will head marketing for the team, which is taking Boots health and beauty products outside the British Isles. It has already set up three stores in Holland and five in Thailand, and will target Japan next.

The former managing director is part of an exodus of top level staff since Boots disposed of subsidiary AG Stanley, which runs Homestyle and Fads (MW September 11).

Marketing and merchandising director Ian Filby left within a week of the sale to become group business manager for food and leisure at Boots the Chemist.

He was temporarily replaced by Alan Bowe, who has now retired, leaving the post vacant.

Director of operations Chas McShane has left AG Stanley and is expected to take up a new post at Boots within the next few weeks.

Alchemy, the venture capital fund which took over AG Stanley, has recently installed a new chief executive at Homestyle and Fads – David Medcalf from the Headlam Group.

Medcalf is caretaking the marketing role while the future of the department is decided.

“We are reviewing marketing and it is likely that local managers will be allowed more autonomy. At some point we will be making an exit, through a flotation or sale, but we can’t do that until the chain is making a profit,” says Alchemy director Andrew Leek.

AG Stanley posted an operating loss of 11.8m for the year ending March 1997.