It took three months for Jeffrey Rea to imprint his stamp on Stock Building Supply, and when he did, he didn't shy from making big moves. On April 1, Rea reorganized the dealer's operations into four regional divisions while eliminating the chief operating officer and vice president of national sales positions.
Rea appointed Phil Randolph president of the mid-Atlantic region, covering Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Washington metro area, and Arkansas; Mark Fikse to run the Southeast division, encompassing the Carolinas and Georgia; Dan Buttars to head the Southwest region, which takes in Stock's operations in Texas and New Mexico; and Duff Wakefield to run the West region, which covers Utah, Idaho, Washington state, and California. Stock's Coleman Flooring division will continue to be headed by Steve Wilson.
"With this new structure, the chief operating officer and vice president of national sales positions have been eliminated," a Stock memo to staff said. "Our most recent COO, Steve Short, has decided to leave the company. ... Nigel Stobart, who has held the national sales position since its formation early last year and has been instrumental in leading the improvement of our strategic selling processes, will remain with the company for a transitional period to assist me with several strategic projects and support the transformation to our new market-centric structure."
Stock also announced that Jim Drexinger would take over all supply chain and operational improvement work, including staffers who deal with the Raleigh, N.C.-based company's national accounts. Drexinger's new duties include sourcing, product management, and marketing.
The changes are the most significant under Rea's time at Stock. The veteran of General Electric and Tyco took over Nov. 16 from Joe Appelmann, who led the longtime ProSales top 10 company through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy-law reorganization in 2009 after the Gores Group bought a 51% stake in the company from Wolseley PLC.
