SCG Supplies has appointed Mark Wemyss as the firm’s new area sales manager for Scotland and the north of England.
Mark, who spent over a decade with Finning, started his new role, which will primarily involve selling recycling, crushing, screening and recycling products as well as increasing the company’s spare parts business, in June.
Mark left Finning late last year during a period of uncertainty in the industry following the downturn in the Scottish coal sector and collapse in oil price. Those factors gave him “food for thought” about his future and he decided to take a break from the industry and go travelling for a few years.
“I found myself in a very fortunate position, having just sold a house in the west end of Glasgow, which is a booming micro market,” Mark told Project Plant. “Having that security, I saw an opportunity to leave the UK for a while with my wife Amy. Travelling is a passion of ours, so much so that my colleagues at Finning actually used to make fun of us for the amount of exotic holidays and road trips we went on during my time there.
“You’re only young once I say, and it’s what we like to spend our money on. But there’s only so much you can do on a two-week vacation. We left in January and spent a month in India, then three weeks in Nepal where we trekked to Everest Base Camp, which was as challenging as it was breathtaking. We backpacked through Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam and Singapore over the course of four months.
“Three months into the trip we discovered Amy was pregnant. We were delighted obviously, but had Australian Visas in place and paid for, and hadn’t planned to be home for two or three years.”
Given the change in circumstances the couple returned to Scotland, and Mark began searching for a new job.
“I started with Finning over ten years ago on the product support side of the business, in what would now probably be referred to as a Modern Apprenticeship type role, spending time in different parts of the business, learning about the various aspects to the company,” Mark added. “The majority of my time was spent as a parts order interpreter, and I developed a knack for recognising customer requirements, seeing the big picture and upselling where possible, working on the front counter of the branch for six years.
“I was promoted into a machine sales role in 2011 and spent four years selling the full range of Caterpillar products, primarily focusing on the building and construction products initially– mini-excavators, telehandlers and backhoes. As I progressed and my knowledge grew I went on to sell larger machines, new and used, to larger companies covering the west coast of Scotland.”
When Mark arrived back in Scotland in May, he had a conversation with SCG founder, Stephen Grieve, about going to work for the Hamilton-based supplier of spare and wear parts.
“I’ve known Stephen for many years,” Mark added. “He used to be on the phone to me every other week looking for parts. I got a feeling for who he was back then and admired his courage for starting his own business. Now seeing the customers he’s dealing with and the success he’s having, it was a no-brainer for me to decide to go and work for a guy who I know and trust, and to become a valued member of a team in a small business.
“It’s a bit of a change and definitely a new challenge, coming from general construction to recycling and aggregate equipment, but there’s a lot of crossover in the customer base. Although at Finning I was generally selling to owner operators and small companies in a designated geographical area, thankfully from my time in parts I have relationships with many of the key customers in the industry all over Scotland who operate a larger, more varied range of equipment. I hope to be able to build on these relationships now that I can sell to all of them directly, as I’m covering the whole of Scotland and the north of England.
Mark’s portfolio will consist of:
• Bruce Engineering washing and recycling products, for which SCG has successfully been the UK dealer for some time.
• Portafill International Ltd, a leading designer and developer of a range of, innovative and mobile screens, crushers, trommels, wash systems and conveyors.
• Screenpod, a design and manufacture specialist to the global market. SCG has brought their range of durable heavy duty screening buckets on board, as well as the Airvac range of lights recovery separation systems for removing plastics and contaminants from conveyor belts in various applications.
• Telestack bulk material handling systems.
