Healthspan announce CEO appointment
Derek Coates has announced the appointment of Graham Case, former Deputy Chief Executive of Healthspan, to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Guernsey based Healthspan, the biggest direct brand of nutritional supplements in the UK. Michael Lawther has been appointed Deputy CEO and will also continue in his current role of Group Finance Director. Derek will remain as Group Chairman.
Derek Coates, founder of Healthspan, said that following his decision in January 2011 not to sell the company, he was handing over the role of CEO so that he could focus on further new business developments within the Group, as well as other companies outside of Healthspan. He also intends to take the opportunity for more travel and leisure time. Derek said ‘On making the decision not to sell the company, we initiated a number of ambitious ‘lateral’ new business development opportunities as well as a program of internationalising the business. I decided that I didn’t personally want to put in the same number of hours to take these plans through to fruition, and that my time could be better spent on creating new opportunities, whilst also freeing myself up to take a more objective view of our businesses as Chairman.
Derek’s and Graham’s business relationship goes back some thirty years, initially working together in a marketing agency that Derek subsequently listed and sold on the Stock Market. When Derek moved to Guernsey, Graham stayed in the UK and ran his own marketing agency for a further ten years; his agency was quite unique in the services it offered at that time, specialising in developing and running ‘business to business’ incentive programmes, using the clients’ sales data to analyse marketing gaps and trends.
Graham was invited to join Healthspan in September 1999; just at the time that Healthspan sales were ‘mushrooming’ and required new marketing focussed business systems to manage the growth. At that time, there was only one server to handle the whole business, now there are over eighty.
With Grahams marketing approach to systems, backed up by a programming background at ICL (International Computers Ltd), he took charge of building the computing and operations side of the business leaving the marketing tasks to Derek. The business has changed a lot since he joined. Graham commented ‘At that time there was no internet to speak of, today we send 25 million emails a year and we now have 6 web sites, however the telephone still remains the preferred option for our customers.’
Graham’s philosophy has always been ‘keep it simple’; that is not an easy task in business, especially today. However simplicity, as far as the user is concerned, must run throughout the business from the Call Centres that Graham setup in Gosport to the ultra-efficient dispatch centre at Pitronnerie that handles over 5 million packs a year.
Graham added: ‘We haven’t got where we are today in IT and operations, through my efforts alone, I may have directed their design and development but I have had the good fortune of working with some very intelligent and competent people to implement and run the systems.’
Michael Lawther, the new Deputy CEO, graduated from Oxford University in 1979 with a Degree in Engineering Science. He qualified as an ACA Chartered Accountant in London. After qualifying he worked for the multinational Gillette in several different financial roles including treasury, financial planning, acquisitions and mergers.
Prior to joining Healthspan in 2002, Michael had been Group Financial Director in three different companies, spanning pharmaceuticals, nutrition, software and consumer goods. While Finance Director of one group he conducted a stock market listing (IPO) and then stayed on for several years as the Finance Director of the quoted PLC listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Healthspan is a completely ‘home-grown’ enterprise founded by Derek Coates sixteen years ago. The first pack of Healthspan supplements left the island in March 1996 with a range of just 10 products. The original Healthspan brand has expanded since then and now offers more than 150 products including nutritional supplements, a licenced herbal range, skin-care, cosmetics and a veterinary range. Healthspan’s products have been developed and endorsed by numerous leading UK doctors, professors and nutritionists as well as various main stream journalists.
Graham Case concluded by saying: ‘Healthspan has a broad and strong management team with considerable depth of knowledge in the VMS (Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements) market. Several growth initiatives are already underway and my vision is to move Healthspan from being the largest supplier of VMS in the UK to becoming the largest supplier of VMS, health and well-being in Europe.’
Derek will remain as Chairman of Healthspan and expects to frequently challenge the management team to ensure the continued growth and prosperity of the Group.
Graham Case and Michael Lawther are also non-Executive Directors of Vista Hotels and Blue Islands of which Derek Coates also remains as Chairman.
blog comments powered by