Who is Wickes boss Fraser Longden as Twitter boycott trends amid backlash

Wickes chief operating officer (COO) Fraser Longden, has sparked outrage online with many people calling for Twitter to boycott the company after comments he has made.  

In an online event hosted by LGBTQ+ News company Pink News to talk about trans rights, the COO of the DIY store said: “I don't think I'm ever going to change some of the bigots' minds, I'm never going to win that argument with them, so we were doing it to show support to the community.”

He added “The other ten per cent you know, they're just hot air and they will go and buy a tin of paint in the nearest place to them. That might have been us before, it might not be us afterwards - and equally, if they do come in and buy a tin of paint and behave that way, they're not welcome in our stores anyway.”

Following the comments made by Fraser the company - which changed its logo at the start of June to the rainbow flag in honour of pride month - Wickes Group PLC saw a drop in shares by four percent. 

Some people are wondering whether this is Fraser’s ‘Gerald Ratner moment.’ The former Chief Executive Officer and businessman of jewellery brand Ratners Group famously made a joke at the 1991 Institute of Directors Annual Convention which ended up sinking his entire company. He said: “People say, 'How can you sell this for such a low price?', I say, "because it's total crap.”

Ratner Group was a family owned business which Gerald inherited from his father, he grew the business to a multi-billion-pound company with over 2,500 stores. But shares dropped after his speech and the company went into financial reconstructing with Gerald resigning the following year.

Boycott Wickes was trending on Twitter as social media users shared their outrage along with celebrities including Elon Musk and swimmer Sharron Davies who commented on the platform. Sharon wrote people would be “taking their bigoted business elsewhere".

Former trainee child therapist James Esses slammed the comments as “offensive, divisive and discriminatory remarks." Twitter owner Elon Musk commented on James's post simply with two exclamation marks. 

Who is Fraser Longden? 

According to his LinkedIn, Fraser worked for Wickes for over eight years and started as a HR Director in 2014 before being promoted to Chief Commercial Officer in 2016 ,then Chief Operations Officer a year later. He previously worked on the executive board for rival company B&Q as HR Director.

Fraser is married to wife Lynn Longden, a social media advocate at The Trussell Trust and a volunteer responder for the NHS.