Member Article

BT announce split of retail division

BT has announced it will split its Retail division into two separate businesses from September to better challenge rivals Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk.

The retail division will now become BT Consumer and BT Business.

The telecoms giant say the split will enable the company to better serve customers and become to go-to brand for UK SMEs.

CEO of BT Consumer will be John Petter, currently managing director of the Consumer unit within BT Retail, and the CEO of BT Business will be Graham Sutherland, currently managing director of the Business unit within BT Retail.

Gavin Patterson BT Retail CEO, said today: “BT Retail has delivered well for many years now contributing strong profits to the group. It is time however for the business to be split in two given the intensely competitive nature of the consumer market and our strong ambitions in the business space.

“John and Graham are excellent leaders and I have every confidence they will take the fight to the competition and help BT to grow in the future.”

BT Enterprises and BT Ireland will merge with BT Business to form the new BT Business division while BT wi-fi and the consumer part of BT Ireland will transfer to BT Consumer.

John Petter, MD Consumer, said: “I am thrilled to be given this opportunity. BT is in a four way tussle with Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk for broadband customers and we are at the start of an exciting journey with BT Sport. There has never been a better time to be a consumer and we plan to up the ante in the coming years.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .