Stock Building Supply has executed its biggest corporate shakeup since Jeffrey Rea became president last November, eliminating the COO and vice president of national sales positions and reorganizing operations into four regional divisions, each with its own regional president and general manager.

Under the reorganization, revealed to Stock staff last Friday:

  • Phil Randolph will lead the mid-Atlantic region, meaning he will take over Stock's operations in Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Washington metro area, and Arkansas. He also will lead until further notice the Southeast region, which covers Stock's faciilties in the Carollinas and Georgia.
  • Dan Buttars will lead the Southwest region, which takes in Stock's operations in Texas and New Mexico.
  • Duff Wakefield will head the West region, which covers Utah, Idaho, Washington state, and California.

Previously, Stock had been organized in two major divisions covering the eastern and western United States. Aside from the Stock Building Supply stores, Stock's Coleman Flooring division will continue to be headed by Steve Wilson.

Stock also announced that Jim Drexinger will 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 will include sourcing, product management, and marketing.

"With this new structure, the chief operating officer and vice president of national sales positions have been eliminated," a Stock memo to employees stated. "Our most recent COO, Steve Short, has decided to leave the company. Steve has had a distinguished career with Stock and was a valued member of the executive team. ... 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."

The latest changes are the most significant under Rea's time at Stock. The veteran of General Electric and Tyco took over Nov. 16 from Joe Appellmann, 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.

Last fall, Wolseley reported that the Gores investment vehicle that took control of Stock May 2009 incurred an after-tax loss of $45.5 million on revenue of $949.9 million in the fiscal year ended July 31, 2010. Wolseley also said then that it was writing off the carrying value of its investment--roughly $64.4 million--in that investment vehicle, Saturn Acquisition Holdings LLC, because the firm continued to post losses in the past fiscal year and Wolseley wasn't sure whether Saturn would post dividends or other returns on investment in the future.

Stock's sales in 2009 of $1.43 billion put it fifth on last year's ProSales 100, after which a merger between then-No. 2 ABC Supply and No. 4 Bradco Supply moved Stock back to fourth place. This year's ProSales 100 will be announced next month.