Following the sudden departure of Nicholas Marshall, The garden Centre Group has announced the appointment of Kevin Bradshaw as ceo and Nils Steinmeyer as cfo to help drive change and bring GCG "in line with Terra Firma's plans"
The move follows the news that Mr Marshall would be stepping down with immediate effect, announced on October 9. He had been at the helm of the UK's largest garden centre company for the past four years and his departure came months after Terra Firma's acquisition of the group in April 2012.

Terra Firma chairman and chief investment officer Guy Hands said of the new appointments: "Kevin's turnaround and multi-site experience will help drive the necessary strategic change and operational transformation of The Garden Centre Group in line with Terra Firma's plans. Nils' experience at Terra Firma makes him ideally positioned to assist with the Company's development and growth. We look forward to working with them both in growing the garden centre group and expanding its customer base."

GCG's new chief executive Mr Bradshaw joins from car rental company Avis Europe Plc, where he was managing director on the executive board and was directly responsible for UK operations.

He has held previous roles at Reuters Finance, a subsidiary of Reuters Group and at strategy consultancy firm Kalchas Group, where he was responsible for delivering projects to FTSE 100 companies specialising in the retail sector.

Mr Bradshaw will join The Garden Centre Group on 19 November 2012.

Newly-appointed cfo Mr Steinmeyer was a finance director at Terra Firma with responsibility for The Garden Centre Group and has been a member of The Garden Centre Group's board since the date of acquisition.

Over the past few years Mr Steinmeyer has worked closely with several Terra Firma businesses, including Deutsche Annington, AWAS and Phoenix Natural Gas. He joined Terra Firma in 2003 as financial controller with a remit to align the financial management and reporting standards across the firm's portfolio businesses.

He takes up the permanent position and joins the company with immediate effect, stating: "It is an exciting time to be joining given the Group's development plans."

GCG chairman Stephen Murphy, who stepped into the chief executive role in the interim, said: "I am delighted to announce both Kevin's appointment as ceo and Nils appointment as cfo of The Garden Centre Group. Kevin's strong strategic skills and experience of leading large teams makes him ideally positioned to support the Group's future growth. And Nil's experience with Terra Firma will be invaluable as the company continues to grow under their ownership."

Last month Mr Murphy revealed that the 129-strong garden centre chain could expand by up to 70 more centres in the next five to seven years.

Speaking to DIY Week, Mr Murphy said the GCG had shareholder approval for plans "to expand both organically and by acquisition."

He added: "We would like to double our size and so through the acquisition of larger centres we anticipate that we could acquire up to 70 centres over [the] five to seven year period."