Former Kingfisher executive George Adams is to become chief executive of Maxeda DIY, part of the Dutch private equity-backed retail group of the same name.

He will be joined by B&Q commercial and marketing director John Colley, who has been named Maxeda DIY’s chief commercial officer.

Adams, who left Kingfisher in 2008 after he was said to have been overlooked as successor to Ian Cheshire at the flagship B&Q business, is at present chief executive of Spicers Group.

He replaces Nick Wilkinson, the former Dixons dierctor who has run Maxeda DIY for four years, and has resigned for “personal and professional reasons”.

Maxeda, run by former Asda chief executive Tony DeNunzio, controls chains such as de Bijenkorf and Hunkemoller and is backed by private equity groups including KKR and Permira.

Maxeda has been selling off its constituent parts. This week it unloaded department store chain V&D to Sun European Partners in a deal reported to be worth between euro 50m and euro 75m.

DeNunzio said he was pleased by the appointments of Adams and Colley. He said: “Both have extensive experience in DIY. George will steer Maxeda DIY into the next phase of its development. John will play a significant role in the exciting plans we have in place for sourcing, private label and category development.”

Adams and Colley will start at Maxeda in November.