ON THE MOVE
• Rudridge has appointed Dave Rudd to the position of branch manager at its Brentford branch.
• Scott Parnell has appointed Ian Griggs as md of its new hard landscaping division.
• Huws Gray has appointed Stephen
Thompstone as non-executive director.
Thompstone has over 35 years
industry experience and is also CEO of Crendon Timber Engineering and MD of Wyckham Blackwell.
• Bradite has appointed a new south east area sales manager. Matt Tomkins will cover the area south of the
line between Portsmouth and Lincoln, including London.
• Saniflo has a new sales manager, James
Beresford, who is based in Leicestershire.
• Garador, has appinted Neil Discombe as managing director. He will focus on developing Garador’s
production facility, as well as its commercial success.
12
10 MINUTES WITH: PHIL BULL
General Manager, Visqueen
What is your current role and how long have you been doing it?
I am General Manager for Visqueen and have been in the role for 6 months. However, I have been with the business for 21 years in a variety of positions including Regional Technical Manager, Specification Director, Sales Director, and Commercial Director.
What does your role entail?
The role is incredibly challenging and diverse. I am responsible for the long-term strategy and innovation in the business as well as directing the day-to-day requirements and reporting to the executive board.
How did you get started in this industry? I dropped out of school during my second year of A levels, which I now realise wasn’t the wisest of decisions! However this did mean I ended up working at a Builders Merchants as a Warehouse Manager and over the next five years I progressed through a number of departments and roles, finally becoming a Branch Manager at my own depot. This has given me a great insight into what Builders Merchants need from manufacturers and helps me ensure a focus on meeting these requirements within Visqueen today.
What roles were you doing before and how did they prepare you for this one? If I’m honest, nothing really prepares you for life as a General Manager in a large PLC. Like a lot of these types of positions, the pressures are high, the hours are long but the rewards are very satisfying. If I had to answer that question, bizarrely I would suggest learning from failure, and there were plenty of those in my early days at Visqueen! One thing I never forgot though was an old boss of mine telling me “if you learn from a defeat you haven’t really lost”.
What would you like to achieve in your role? My strong ambition is for Visqueen to become a leading global brand in gas protection and structural waterproofing, not just in the UK and Europe.
What has been the highlight of your career so far (can be more than one!)?
It’s difficult to pick just one! Firstly, I would say its building the Visqueen brand into a respected authority on Gas and Structural Waterproofing. Key to this has been bringing together and developing a highly skilled and motivated Commercial and Technical team, without whom I could not do my
job. Perhaps finally, the one that gives me the most satisfaction is Visqueen becoming market leader in the supply of High Performance Damp Proof Courses as this was my original role when I joined Visqueen in 1997.
What do you see as the main issues for builders’ merchants and for the construction industry at the moment?
I think the Builders Merchants sector has many of the same challenges as we manufacturers do. We both need to spend time and resources on training graduates and young people to be a part of our industries and the real challenge is keeping them and delivering a career path that matches their ambitions. That said I don’t buy into all this negativity surrounding Millennials. It’s down to our industry to treat them well enough and challenge them more so they remain motivated and don’t change jobs every few years.
If you could go back to the start of your career, what piece of advice would you give yourself? For a start, finish those A levels so that you can avoid night school and endless training courses while your mates are in the pub after the university day! Seriously, my biggest piece of advice to myself would be to listen more, it’s a very underrated skill.
Which outdoor activity is more likely to keep you busy at the weekends?
In my younger days it was football, squash and snooker. Now you will find me on most weekends on the golf course or socialising with friends and family. The dog will get the odd walk as well!
If you’re at the bar – what are you drinking? Depends who I’m with, if it’s the boss, it’s a sophisticated South American red. However, I’m still an Essex boy at heart really so it has to be a pint of lager with family and friends.
What’s your favourite book? Favourite film? Not really a book reader, apart from business related ones, therefore I will have to go with The Shawshank Redemption as my favourite film but Top Gun is a close second with its great soundtrack.
If you could be a superhero, what super-power would you choose?
It would have to be the ability to fly. That said, I haven’t got a great head for heights so I would keep the altitude below the radar!
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net September 2018
PEOPLE
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