Obituaries
It has been a particularly sad time for our industry in the last two months as we have lost two leading personalities. Robert Aplin provides a personal comment.
With all the many challenges that we are facing at this time, the sad news of the deaths of two leading hire industry personalities within a four-week period is a particularly hard blow to take. However, it is my sad duty to inform you that we have lost Andrew Walke, of pressure washer manufacturer Demon international, and Kevin Bright, Chairman of Selwood, both at tragically young ages.
We all missed Andrew Walke at this year’s Executive Hire Show, but I, like many others, expected him to make a full recovery from his illness and be back at work, as his normal positive and jovial self, within a few weeks. It was not to be and he passed away on 9 March, aged only 49. Andrew
had joined the family business, G Walke Construction Equipment, at 17 as an engineer, predominantly repairing hire equipment. By the mid 1980s, the company had developed into the south west of England distributor for a range of pressure washers, and this move led to Andrew’s first dealing with hire companies.
Faced with design issues with the range of pressure washers they were distributing, the Walke family - Andrew, his brother Martyn, who joined the company five years after Andrew, together with their father Gordon, decided to design their own range and Demon International was born, in 1989. Subsequently, Andrew developed a large number of close relationships throughout the hire industry, becoming one of its most respected equipment suppliers.
In all the 20-odd years that I knew Andrew, no other supplier could match his encyclopaedic knowledge of independent hirers. He played an important role in the formation of the Executive Hire Show, not just as an enthusiastic supporter of the new event, but in his invaluable help in directing us towards dozens of key hirers that we visited in the lead-up to that first Show. Andrew was passionate about hire and he showed it at all times. Our industry has lost a very good friend.
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Whilst Andrew Walke’s death was a dreadful surprise, the news that Kevin Bright, majority shareholder and Chairman of Selwood, the Hampshire-based plant and pump hire and sales company, passed away on 7 April at the age of 51 was much less surprising, as Kevin had fought a long and courageous battle with cancer since first diagnosed in 2005. The courage and determination with which Kevin fought this disease has been an inspiration to everyone who knew him.
Kevin was the longest serving Director in the history of Selwood, which was founded in 1946. Having started my career in hire with Selwood in 1974, I can remember Kevin joining the company two years later as a trainee accountant and swiftly rising through the managerial ranks, becoming Group Managing Director in April 1988. He held this role until November 2007 when he decided to spend more time away from the business, taking on the position of Chairman.
In 1994, Kevin led a successful MBO of Pascon, which comprised Selwood, Palmers Scaffolding and Croker from its then owner, BTR plc. He then headed Pascon through the expansion and subsequent sale of Palmers in 1999. Following that sale, Kevin led a new management team on the next stage, culminating in Selwood’s record performance in 2007.
In 2006 - Selwood’s 60th anniversary - Kevin put his drive and commitment behind the fund-raising efforts of a group of employees touring Selwood’s UK locations by motorbike. This raised over £60,000 for Cancer Research UK and Riders for Health. In December 2008, he and his family followed this up with a tandem parachute jump over the Hoover Dam whilst on holiday, an exploit that raised £12,000 for Jane Scarth House, a local cancer care facility.
Andrew Walke and Kevin Bright will be sadly missed throughout our industry. Our thoughts and condolences are with both families at this time of great sorrow. May God bless you all.
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