New chief distribution officer for FlexiGroup New Zealand

FlexiGroup New Zealand has appointed Wayne Simeon to the role of chief distribution officer.

With more than 20 years' experience in the field of sales and channel development across a diverse mix of consumer brands, Simeon will lead the distribution strategy for FlexiGroup New Zealand's consumer business.

Simeon's experience includes leading business outcomes for consumer companies and brands, across multiple categories and channels including FMCG, Telco and B2B.

He most recently held the role of vending general manager at Coca-Cola Amatil. Previous to this he held leadership roles with Reckitt Benckiser and Nestle.

FlexiGroup New Zealand CEO Chris Lamers says Simeon's leadership skills, strategic relationship management, and sales and financial analysis expertise were a strong fit for the role as the organisation looks to grow its network of 13,000 retailers across New Zealand.

"As a business, we're continuing to see strong growth across our consumer products including Q Card, Q Mastercard, Flight Centre Mastercard, Farmers Finance Card and Oxipay with volumes up 13% on the previous year and 7,000 new customer accounts registered on average each month.

"Relationships are central to this growth and Wayne's experience of building, fostering and influencing positive customer relationships will be important as we look to further expand our network of retail partners and grow the number of customers using our products in market," says Lamers.

Wayne Simeon joins FlexiGroup New Zealand in the Chief Distribution Officer role from 30 April 2018.

FlexiGroup New Zealand (NZ) is also the approved leasing financier for the Government's teacher laptop scheme, TELA+.

It is working with the Ministry of Education lead contractor, Cyclone Computer Company Limited to deliver TELA+ over the next three years.

FlexiGroup NZ and Cyclone have partnered in the development of TELA+ - an advanced version of the well-known scheme that has given teachers access to more than 100,000 laptops in the past eight years.