I have worked in Building Material/Joinery Products for 40 years this year. I started in the industry as a Counter Assistant with Southern-Evans in 1983, leading to my first external role with Hunter Timber, selling bulk timber and sheet materials to joinery manufacturers, timber kit manufacturers, and building merchants. My first exposure to the Garage Door Industry was with PC Henderson (Henderson Garage Doors), selling onto garage door specialists, distributors, builders merchants and local authorities, working closely with house builders and architects. This gave me my first experience of the new build housing market.
With this experience, I went to work with Watson–Dallas, a manufacturer of external and internal door sets and UPVC Windows for new build and local authority refurbishment programmes. This was a very successful time for me regarding career progression, and I was promoted to the National Sales Manager role. IG Doors bought out Watson-Dallas, and my role changed where I reverted back to looking after the Scottish key accounts regarding the Scottish new build sector, supplemented with a few local authority contracts.
I was then approached to join Aberdeen Window and Door Systems, a major importer of Scandinavian high-performance windows and doors, where my role included gaining specifications and producing schedules for major building projects, including schools, hospitals, offices etc. I worked closely with a specialist door manufacturer who manufactured high-performance doors for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Food Processing, Health Care and Clean Room Technologies.
I returned to IG Doors and resumed my role as the Regional Sales Manager for Scotland and the North East, again back dealing with the new build sector and set about growing the area reasonably successful. Unfortunately, the Pandemic hit, and it was decided that the External Sales Team wouldn’t be required in the new world.
I started my employment with Novoferm in September 2021. I was warned that the role would bring many challenges, so resilience, perseverance, stamina and plain old-fashioned hard graft are required. I am fortunate to work alongside many great colleagues who support and encourage me every day, and you can sense a real team effort to achieve our goal of making Novoferm the UK Trade Supplier of Choice. As the old saying goes. “If you want to go fast, go alone – If you want to go far, go together.” The consistent evolution in Novoferm from Product Quality and Customer Service levels has been welcomed within the Garage Door Industry. As one great Sales Director once told me. “If you stand still and look back, You’ll get caught in the stampede.” There are always bumps and distractions on the road, but the goal remains the same.
