PEOPLE NEWS
Tong Garden Centre promotes from within
Smart grows team in anticipation of bumper year
Garden products supplier, Smart has appointed three new
team members to
Tong Garden Centre has created six new roles to support the next phase of growth and expansion within the business that includes a £3.5million investment in the Tong Lane site over the next three years. Former centre manager Andy Mears has been promoted to the newly created role of general manager and assumes responsibility for managing the entire site, property, warehousing, buildings, health and safety in addition to the retail team and shop floor.
Supporting Andy Mears in the
role of assistant general manager will be Andrew Tyers, promoted from food hall manager. The garden centre sees a new tier of management introduced, with two positions created to lead all aspects of the retail team. Promoted to indoor manager is Dennis Keen with responsibility for garden sundries, giftware and the food hall as well as seasonal ranges including outdoor furniture
Left: L-R: Dennis Keen Andy Mears Clair Spencer Phil Hemmings Andrew Tyers and Dave Clayforth
and Christmas.
His equivalent is outdoor manager Dave Clayforth, promoted from plant supervisor, to lead the plant team and oversee plants, pots, compost and landscaping. The business
has also
appointed Phil Hemmings, with over 10 years of garden retail experience, to the newly- created role of garden sundries and Christmas buyer and Clair Spencer has been promoted to the new role of inventory controller responsible for stock control and management.
In addition, there have been
three internal promotions with James Tolson moving to sundries supervisor, Ann Smith to senior customer services advisor and James Beaumont to marketing assistant.
Chief commercial officer Melanie Meskers took up her position on the board at Elho this summer, bringing a wealth of experience from numerous roles over two decades with Unilever.
New DCF scholarships available to students Steve’s
work John Gibson
strengthen its head office sales functions. Karen Gorski and Piotr Bury join the UK sales team, and Ana Beunza joins the export sales team, focusing on the thriving French market. Smart has also announced further investment in its new product development and supply chain teams, with the appointment of Michelle Lee as category management co-ordinator and Darren Bailey as supply analyst & planner. The investment in new staff is
in response to continued growth in Smart’s core markets and the new recruits will provide much-
needed support, as the company ramps up its programme of range and category extensions. Smart managing director Jonathan Stobart said: “Bringing Michelle and Darren into the team will help us to accelerate development of new items, build on the strong relationships which we have with our suppliers and maximize stock availability. “We are predicting strong
growth in 2019 so we need to expand our head office team to ensure we can maintain high levels of service and fully satisfy customer demand.” Smart supplies products under a number of brands, including Smart Solar, Super Bright, Smart Garden, Outside In designs, Flamboya, Three
L-R: Darren Bailey and Michelle Lee
L-R Karen Gorski, Piotr Bury, Ana Beunza
Kings and ChapelWood. The company’s head office and showroom is based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, with a warehouse hub in Peterborough.
Elho appoints new group board member In her new role, Ms Meskers
is responsible for the commercial organisation of the Elho group: the
sales, marketing, CEO and product
development, online and category management departments. She joins the rest of the Elho board:
generation family member
second- Olaf
Elderenbosch; CFO Marco Wels; and director of operations Bert Bakkeren.
Ms Meskers has an extensive marketing and sales background in fast-moving consumer goods in both food and non-food markets. She started her career as a management
trainee at
Unilever, where she subsequently worked for 20 years in various
local, regional and global roles. Her most recent position at Unilever was global director of family cooking, baking, creams. Ms Mesker is particularly
inspired by the company’s ethos of working towards sustainable product development and innovative solutions, saying of her new role at Elho: “There is a growing need for more green in our living environment…Together with our retailers, I would like to inspire even more consumers and help them to bring nature into and around their homes in a simple way.
I am proud to
work towards the future of this innovative, ‘green’ and successful family business.”
Rudridge raises £1,000 for charity
Steve was working as an exchange student.
experience
opportunity greatly influenced the way they run Majestic Trees and it is for this reason that Majestic Trees would like to provide this scholarship for a student passionate about tree production. The
Environmental
The David Colegrave Foundation (DCF) scholarship season is open for student horticulturists.
This year sees the launch of three new scholarships providing even more opportunities to students who have a passion for trees, sustainability or research.
The Majestic Trees Sponsored
Travel Scholarship is offering up to £3,000 to fund a placement abroad at a tree nursery. This also includes the opportunity for a work placement at Majestic Trees, which could become a permanent position. The owners of Majestic Trees, Steve and Janet McCurdy, first met in California whilst
6 DIY WEEK 09 NOVEMBER 2018
Scholarship will award £1,500 to a student with a keen interest in environmental solutions and sustainable applications as applied to commercial horticulture. John Gibson worked at Colegrave Seeds with the late David Colegrave and was at the forefront of the development of the market for hybrid seeds and seedlings. This scholarship recognises John’s keen interest in environmental solutions that can advance commercial horticulture in a sustainable manner. The Horticultural Research Scholarship will award £2,500 to support applied research within the horticulture industry. Students who are keen to pursue a research
career in the horticultural
industry should apply. This includes undergraduates, postgraduates and those studying for doctoral degrees.
Farnham-based groundwork and materials supplier Rudridge has raised £1,000 on behalf of the charity Macmillan Cancer Support, after another successful annual quiz night.
Competitors came together at Silvermere Golf Club in Cobham, where the quiz teams - comprised of local businesses from all over the South East - vied for the main prize of donating the evening’s fundraising total to a charity of their choice. It was a battle of wits, as the teams had their knowledge put to the test by challenging questions on an array of subjects including sport, history and science. After a tough competition, the winners were announced as The Pretenders from Esher construction company, Landmark Groundworks, whose final score proved to be unbeatable. The team members Kyle Johnson, Kevin Lynch, David McCarthy and Dara Keegan chose to donate the proceeds raised to Macmillan Cancer Support – a charity which is close to their hearts. Commenting on the fundraising quiz, Rudridge director Paul Duke, said: “A huge well done to The Pretenders. Macmillan Cancer Support is an exceptionally good cause and I hope the donation will make a real difference to the charity.
www.diyweek.net
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
