Hochiki Europe expands premises and boosts EMEA team following year of growth

6 Sep 2016

Leading life safety systems manufacturer, Hochiki Europe, has made a series of strategic investments to bolster its production and supply chain facilities in the UK, created a number of senior appointments in EMEA, and made a series of promotions following a period of significant corporate growth.

The business has increased capacity of its warehouse to 1,300m2 of floor space at its European headquarters in Gillingham, Kent to ensure the increased order volume is delivered efficiently and effectively to customers. This follows a surge in demand from export markets including India, where the company opened its first office earlier in the year and continues to rapidly expand its team, the Middle East and Africa.

The expanded warehouse will also house a new, dedicated area for special labelled products, such as marine devices, to meet rising customer demand. While a new barcoding system will mean customers are only invoiced once products are dispatched.

To support this market growth, new appointments include Renee Keenan, who joins Hochiki Europe as customer service section leader and Simon May who is the new technical manager for EMEA. Within Hochiki Europe’s sales team, a number of key positions have been filled to further bolster export sales activity across Europe and Africa.

Richard Wharram has joined the business as the new regional sales manager for the North of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Martyn Hanks has been brought on board as the regional sales manager for Africa, while Hochiki Europe’s Central and Eastern Europe sales activity will be overseen by Petia Simeonova.

Daniel Pamplin was one of eight internal promotions. Having started at the company as an apprentice in 2012, Daniel gained a BTEC Level 3 diploma in Engineering and a HNC in electronic engineering while working at the business. He has now been promoted to engineering technician.

Graham Lowe, sales director, Hochiki Europe commented: “The last financial year has seen Hochiki Europe go from strength to strength and this influx of new talent and expertise will help us to further build on last year’s success.

“To support our new staff and customers, we have invested in a number of other key areas of the business. For example, our IT systems have recently been upgraded to maximise efficiency across the company and we have introduced dedicated supply chain coordinators for each sales region, ensuring that all customers receive one to one service.”