PEOPLE
ON THE MO VE
10 MINUTES WITH: TREVOR COSSINS
Managing dir ector of P C Henderson Ltd.
What is your current role and how long have you been doing it?
I have been the Managing Director of P C Henderson Ltd since June 2016
What does your role entail?
My overall responsibility is for the P C Henderson Group which includes our manufacturing plants in Bowburn UK and in the Far East, as well as two distribution
Bladel, Holland and Dublin, Ireland. A lot of my time is currently spent working with the senior management team to develop a strategy that will help pave the way forward for continued business growth. My day to day work can include anything from working with suppliers, product development or talking to our customers alongside other daily duties.
What roles were you doing before and how did they prepare you for this one? I began my career as a Mechanical Engineer with Perstorp; a large Swedish laminate manufacturer in the North East of England, where as well as producing decorative laminates we also produced
What do you see as the main issues for builders merchants and for the construction industry at the moment? I worry that competition for business will put pressure on price reductions and businesses will undercut each other to a point where the market is totally undervalued. I have seen this many times in the past where product prices are slashed putting the pressure back on the manufacturers to make cost reductions. This then opens the door to cheap
imports, leading manufacturers to “value engineer” products to a point where they do not have the quality and value they did before and the end user has to use inferior products. If this happens the industry will
original price point, affecting hardware quality and new product development.
If you could go back to the start of your career, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
worktops. I worked my way through various roles and responsibilities into the role of site manufacturing manager. My next role was at Jeld-Wen where I headed a facility in the North West of England that manufactures internal and external doors, before eventually joining P C Henderson.
What would you like to achieve in your role?
M
My main aim here is to maintain the heritage that goes with such a long standing and iconic brand, along with a determination to improve a business that is going from strength to strength. We have a global customer base that deserves to be serviced with the best possible products, on time every time with no call back quality. I am a great believer in people involvement and team culture. Having a team of people with the knowledge, desire and determination to succeed is the greatest asset any company can hope for. We must all strive to learn from our mistakes, support and encourage each other and continue moving forward, I believe that if I can spread this culture to the team at P C Henderson success will be a given.
BMJ June 2017
I would say make sure you try to think from your customer’s point of view, what do they really want, how can you ensure they return? You have to ensure that the people using your products have a good experience, “it was easy to install”, “it worked properly” or “it made my job easy”. Finally, gather a good, well balanced team and use them to help you make the right decisions.
What’s your favourite book? Favourite
It has to be Shawshank Redemption, the story has so many twists and turns and you really don’t know what is going to happen until right at the end when it turns out to be the last thing you thought of. I suppose it is probably like a lot of twists and turns in our working lives, sometimes you get it wrong but you learn from your mistakes and hopefully try to prevent a re-occurrence. Sometimes you have to take a different path but most of all it is about supporting those around and you will eventually see the returns.
If you could be a superhero, what super- power would you choose?
It would have to be to be able to read people’s minds. I’d give them the right answer before they asked the question. Just imagine how much help that would be when dealing with the wife!
• Paul Beaman is now managing dir ector at Keyline following the departur e of Kieran Griffin who is now
managing dir ector at BSS.
Beaman, who has worked at Keyline for two years, joined as head of category in July 2015 becoming r egional director for the Midlands and then commer cial dir ector. He has 30 years’ experience in the industry working acr oss all sectors.
• Andr ew Matthewman has joined Keyline as
national account manager following seven years as a national contract manager for plastic
drainage pr ovider Polypipe Civils. Matthewman will be r esponsible for overseeing and managing national contractor accounts across the UK.
• Nick Sims is now managing dir ector of builder’
r’s mer’s r,, chant Buttle
plc. He succeeds William Naylor , who is r etiring after 3 years in the post.
Sims has 30 years’ experience running multi-site sales & operational businesses within the merchanting and mechanical services sectors. Most recently he was managing director of Ridgeons.
• Buying gr oup PHG has appointed John Dicken to the position of Instinct product gr oup manager. Instinct is PHG’
t is PHG’s own brand pr oduct range. In
his pr evious position at Ridgeons, he was involved with the Instinct own label pr oject at its inception in 2012.
• Phil Br oadbent is the new branch Manager at GB Plastics’ Shr ewsbury branch, whilst Deepak Kalia is the new manager of its W alsall branch.
Br oadbent has pr eviously been a y
management company
contract manager for a specialist waste ny, and ar ea sales
manager for adhesives and silicon manufactur er. Kalia has been branch manager for local branches of Euro Car Parks, Floors2Go and Halfor ds.
• T alon Manufacturing Ltd., a Davidson Holdings ny
company y,, has announced
that Ian Newton will be the new managing director. Newton brings
with him a wealth of experience across several SME’’s
s and also s and also with some lar ger
branded companies such as Coca Cola, Budweiser and Kerry Foods.
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