Lavendon Group Plc, parent company of Nationwide, the country's largest supplier of powered access equipment, has a new chief executive. Kevin Appleton joined the company on January 1; David Price, who previously held the position of Chairman and Chief Executive, remains as Executive Chairman of the Group.

Kevin brings a wealth of experience in the management of multi-depot, multi-site businesses, where people are the competitive edge. Prior to joining Lavendon he spent eight years with NFC, six years with Federal Express Logistics and, latterly, two years with the Dexion Group, where he headed the company's 14-country European Industrial Storage Division. During his time with FedEx Logistics he grew the business from scratch to a multi-million pound operation covering six countries.

Commenting on the appointment, David Price says: "Kevin's track record in running and growing European-wide businesses that are at different stages in their development speaks for itself." He continues: "He understands the problems associated with managing a high growth business such as Lavendon, and that experience will make an invaluable contribution towards the achievement of our business goals over the coming years."

Outside of the UK, Lavendon's other major operations are in France, Germany, Spain and Austria, where the businesses trade under the Zooom brand, and in the Middle East where it operates as Rapid Access. Kevin plans to focus on further developing the Group' expansion potential - the company is already the largest player in the European powered access market - and developing a pan-European strategy, offering industry benchmark standards of customer service, efficiency and reliability.

He comments: "Lavendon is a great company and the people have great attitudes; they are open to new ideas and concepts and are focused on satisfying the customer." He concludes: "I expect to see consolidation in the powered access market during the coming years. Customer expectations will increase to the point where they can be satisfied only by operators that can perform nationally and, ultimately, across international boundaries, and that can consistently deliver the right product backed by exemplary levels of service."

Kevin (41) studied at the University of Nottingham and now lives in Oxfordshire. He speaks fluent French and Dutch and has a passable knowledge of German.

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February 2002 Nat2.024a