Antony Maskrey succeeds Nick Garratt, joining Ercol next month
Heritage furniture maker Ercol has appointed Dr Martens' business transformation director Antony Maskrey to the newly-created role of chief operating officer.

Mr Maskrey — who was operations director at both Net-A-Porter and Clarks before joining Airwair International (Dr Martens), initially as global logistics director — takes the COO and board position at Ercol with effect from Monday September 3.

He succeeds managing director Nick Garratt, whose planned departure was already announced (see related). Mr Garratt will remain with the business for a short handover period before leaving.

Chairman Edward Tadros last night told The Furnishing Report: "I didn't want a straight 'replacement Nick.' COO is a new role for us — I see the position as 'chief of staff' to help the team continue to formulate good strategy and then make sure we execute it properly."

Mr Maskrey has also held senior positions at Nike and Ricoh in Europe and has an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona. He is currently completing a Masters in Research at the University of Bath's School of Management.

Mr Tadros added that these are "difficult but exciting times. We need to keep getting cleverer all the time. I think Antony's background and energy will be a huge asset for Ercol."

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