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Ian retires from Securefast
»»After 15 years continuous
service with Securefast plc, Sales Director
Ian Scott decided to retire with effect from
31 March 2015, bringing to a close his
ironmongery career spanning 46 years.
Beginning in 1969 with King & Co in Hull,
Ian then joined Mateer & Nelson Ltd, also
in Hull, where he helped to build their
Architectural Division, a role in which
he progressed to becoming their Sales
Director and then shareholder. In 2000,
Duncan Crawley, Securefast MD, invited
Ian to join him in helping to grow a new
business, Security Engineering Ltd, which,
through successful organic growth and
strategic acquisition, has since evolved
into Securefast plc, one of the UK’s leading
brands in the fire, safety and security
market.
Ian’s knowledge of mechanical locking
mechanisms and the needs of architects
and specifiers helped introduce a number of
new ranges such as the Scandinavian style
locks, cylinders, special need products and
also helping extending the original mortice
lock ranges under the Securefast brand.
Ian’s invaluable contribution will be
missed by his wide circle of customers and
Securefast colleagues who all wish him a
happy, healthy retirement.
Michelle’s team is
top in telesales
»»When it comes to
telesales nobody can touch
Avocet Hardware’s team,
thanks in no small way to
its new telesales manager,
Michelle Hamer.
Michelle, who has worked
the phones at the Brighouse
company for 22 years, was
promoted last month and her
first task was to train four new
members of the telesales team
– one of whom, Linzi Wagstaff,
was returning to work for
Avocet two years after leaving.
“When I started at Avocet in
the early 90s I never thought
I’d still be working here
22-years later,” said Michelle.
“But when you have a job
that is rewarding, varied and
interesting, and where you
are valued extremely highly
by your colleagues in other
departments and the owners,
why would you leave?”
1997-99
Apecs started a training scheme
to ensure that its staff were
up to speed with western
trading practices to give them
a competitive advantage and
this paid off for although trading
became tough due to the
economic downturn, Apecs
continued with investments
and continued to grow.
Michelle (front right) with (l-r) Linzi Wagstaff, Oliver Hobson,
Jemma Purvis (front), Sally Regis (back), Helen Turner (back),
Marie Helliwell (front), Teresa Lawler (back) and Emma Gallacher
Rythm Jain Saigal, Avocet
Hardware CEO, added: “Call
centres have given telesales
something of a bad name, but
to us it is a vital element of our
2000
To support its operations in
Moscow, Apecs opened its
office in Beijing to improve its
sales, supply chain and logistic
processing. Back in Moscow
the company also continued to
invest, with further staff training
programmes and the inauguration
of its own logistics capability to
improve customer services.
business strategy, staffed solely
by industry professionals.”
www.avocet-hardware.co.uk,
Tel. 01484 711700
2004
Apecs opened the door to its
new factory in Shanghai as a
sign of continuing confidence in
China both as a manufacturing
and customer base. This state of
the art factory produces a whole
range of hardware products.