Jewson has held its annual conference combined with its largest supplier exhibition to date.
The event focused on championing branch teams as the key differentiator for the businesses success.
The conference concluded with the promotion of six branch managers to the newly created role of branch directors. They were acknowledged for being the reference for branch managers within Jewson, and for delivering consistently outstanding service and safe, efficient and profitable branches.
The inaugural Jewson branch managers to receive this accolade were: Drew Fleming for Scotland; John Clark for South West & Wales; Keith Meakins for the South East, Trevor Arnott for the North; Nick Gardner for the Central & Eastern region; and Sam Williamson for London.
The six branch directors have demonstrated a steadfast commitment to Jewson with a minimum of 20 years’ service achieved by each of them.
Peter Stringer, managing director at Jewson, said: “It was important for us at this year’s event to focus on the performance of our people. In 2014 we doubled the amount of training hours undertaken by our colleagues and continued to make strides towards achieving a more diverse workforce. We appreciate the direct correlation between the quality of our teams and the quality of our results, and we therefore remain focused on continually developing our colleagues’ knowledge and skills.
“Jewson has a strong history of developing our own talent, while also reaching out to attract new entrants into our industry. This will remain a key priority for Jewson throughout 2015 and the years to come.”
Mr Stringer continued: “When customers think of Jewson they think of our people, who are the heart and soul of our branch network. We recognise the huge role that branch managers play within our business, and that good people are developed by good branch managers, resulting in good branches. The six branch directors exemplify this type of behavior, and this is why it was important to acknowledge and reward them at our conference. By highlighting their success stories we also set the benchmark that we hope our other branch managers will aspire to reach towards.”
The Jewson annual conference took place in Harrogate from 4 to 5 February, 2015, with over 150 leading industry suppliers in attendance at the exhibition. Furthermore, at the conference Jewson continued its fundraising for ‘together’ partner Macmillan Cancer Support and raised £16,798 for the charity through a series of regional dinners, auctions and from its Tour de Jewson exhibition stand.
As part of the ‘together’ partnership Jewson raised a total of £245,813 for Macmillan Cancer Support in 2014, and £2.67m has been raised for various partner charities since the charity programme was launched in 2002.
