Main man: George Davies has worked his way up through the ranks at Brown and Watson to become CEO, and is now charged with increasing sales and improving quality and performance of Narva and Projecta products.

BROWN and Watson International (BWI), which is the company behind automotive aftermarket brands Narva and Projecta, recently announced the appointment of George Davies as chief executive.

Mr Davies fills the vacancy created recently when Bob Pattison – a former marketing director for Nissan Australia during the 1990s – took on the newly established role of chief executive of parent GUD Holdings’ automotive division, which as well as the BWI brands includes Ryco, Wesfil and Goss.

Previously executive general manager at BWI, Mr Davies has more than 15 years’ experience with the company, having also served in various other positions including general manager of sales and marketing, marketing manager and national sales and marketing manager for Projecta.

As chief executive, Mr Davies now oversees the operations of Narva, which is a leading brand in the lighting and electric accessories market, and Projecta, which concentrates on the battery maintenance and power products segment.

Bob Pattison

He reports to Mr Pattison, who up until recently had managed the BWI brands – which GUD acquired in 2015 – as well as the GUD Automotive business, the latter a role he had served in since 2004.

As GUD’s interests have become concentrated in the automotive sector in recent years, the company recently decided to create a head of all GUD’s automotive interests – with Mr Pattison in the role – which requires the CEOs of each operating business to report through to this position.

GUD’s automotive division expanded further in April with the purchase of Innovative Mechatronics Group, which markets products and services under the Injectronics, RAE, Genuine OEM Parts and MAP brands, and late last year GUD acquired Griffiths Equipment Limited, which has automotive accessories businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Davies said BWI was working towards a new five-year strategic plan aimed at increasing sales and further improving the quality and performance of Narva and Projecta products.

This will include ongoing research and development, which has ramped up at the company recently with the creation of an innovation department aimed at “staying at the forefront of technical developments”.

By Terry Martin