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Since first being lured away from grammar school, after obtaining his ‘O’ Levels, with the promise of a company moped, Steve has found the world of sales and solutions within the building industry to be at times challenging, but ultimately rewarding. From his initial position within a small independent merchant he then moved on to working as part of the store opening team for a national well known DIY chain who, at the time, were very much in their infancy within the UK, enabling him to progress to leading his own team and ultimately his own department within a local store when the opportunity arose. From these early positions Steve learnt invaluable lessons on the importance of communication, teamwork, departmental collaboration and customer service, core values he still carries with him today.

Moving on from a business dealing with the general public Steve was then given his first opportunity in B2B Sales with the UK’S leading paint manufacturer dealing with large DIY chains, a move which proved beneficial in not only personal success but also in highlighting the importance of continual improvement through good training.

From here Steve then when on to work for the P&H brand, for what was at the time, the world’s largest building and plumbing supplies merchant, moving through a variety of positions from Sales Representative, Business Development Manager, Sales Team Manager to Area Sales Manager and as such, was part of the team that grew the business from £19m to in excess of £50m and from 17 to 31 branches in a seven year period dealing with, in the main, larger regional owner operated SME’s.

Eager for a fresh challenge and the opportunity to learn new skills Steve then moved into a newly created role within the company representing all Group Brands nationally across the UK dealing with large multinational companies at all levels from Boardroom down. This afforded the chance to undergo further professional training in such areas as SMART Planning, Best Practice, Team Motivation, Problem Solving, Account Management and Solution Selling whilst also allowing a degree of freedom to implement new processes and systems as IT and logistics came to the fore of the business.

Now involved with clients on multi million, multi-year, multi-level and multi-company RMI contracts Steve found those skills, both taught and learnt, invaluable, allowing him to exceed both company AOP and customer expectations for the next three years prior to the worldwide recession which threw up both a new challenge and opportunity as the company underwent a massive upheaval and contraction.

Staying within the building industry and at a national level, Steve then moved to dealing with large plant and was responsible for, not only retaining the largest national account, but growing the business whilst also being actively involved in setting up a unique to the business of an “on site solution” within the construction of the Olympic Park.

Moving back to working for the UK’s largest Builders Merchant Group, Steve then found himself in a position that utilised his skill set to the full, dealing with a vast

array of clients from Multinationals, Local Authorities, NHS Trusts to the likes of the RSPB and National Trust, working together to offer solutions that afford the company new, consistent and increasing business, exceeding AOP for the last 4 years, whilst answering the wants and needs of the client. Those could differ from being a very simple “we need that, there, on time and in full” solution to far more complicated agreements involving Legal, H&S, IT, Logistics, Manufacturers, Third Parties and bespoke requirements and then Covid hit!!

Like a large amount of companies staff constriction occurred and Steve once again found himself looking for a new opportunity and now works as a Commercial Contracts Manager for the multi-national company Electrolux dealing with the national housebuilders within the UK both ensuring current agreements are fulfilled from all parties whilst also negotiating new multi-year contracts.

Ever eager to learn new skills and understanding, Steve brings a breadth of knowledge from dealing with all levels of people, varying departments and individual skill sets, from both a strategic and delivery point of view and would welcome the opportunity to expand that further working with the Rivermead Inclusive Trust.