BT Retail to merge SMB and enterprise business units

BT Retail is to merge its enterprise and SMB divisions, as it prepares for the arrival of a new group chief executive in September.

The telco giant's retail arm has announced plans to split off into two separate businesses from September called BT Consumer and BT Business.

The latter will be geared towards serving the needs of BT's SMB, enterprise and Irish corporate customers, which represents a merger of three of its incumbent business units.

In the past, SMB customers were served by BT Retail's Business unit, while its larger clients were taken care of by BT Enterprises.

The CEO of BT Business will be Graham Sutherland, who is currently the managing director of the SMB-focused Business unit within BT Retail.

BT Consumer will be presided over by CEO John Petter, who already holds the role of managing director within BT Retail's Consumer unit.

Both gentlemen will report directly to BT Retail CEO Gavin Patterson, who will be taking over the role of BT Group CEO in September from Ian Livingstone, who is due to take up a ministerial role within the Government.

In a statement, BT Retail said the split will enable the company to "better serve its customers" and focus on becoming the brand of choice for UK SMBs

"BT Retail has delivered well for many years now contributing strong profits to the Group. It is time 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," said Patterson.

"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 Business's Sutherland said SMBs are the lifeblood of the UK economy and will play an important role in the company's plans.

"BT Business has a rich set of services and the combination with BT Enterprises and BT Ireland, both fantastic businesses, will help us to grow. It is a pleasure to take on this role at such an exciting time," he added.