STEELWRIST UK has appointed Stuart Lawrie as key account manager for Scotland and the north of England.
Stuart, who was previously plant manager for TSL Contractors on the Isle of Mull, becomes the tiltrotator specialist’s first directly employed Scottish-based operative. He will be tasked with growing the Steelwrist brand north of the border.
Stuart, who is based just outside Oban, told Project Plant, “We ran three Steelwrist units at TSL. That’s when I first came into contact with Pat Bulcock (Steelwrist UK managing director). After working alongside him for a couple of years, a chance conversation resulted in an opportunity to work for Steelwrist, which I thought would be a good one for myself and to develop Steelwrist within the Scottish market.
“Steelwrist already had quite a strong presence in Scotland but no one based here directly employed by them. When the opportunity came along, I jumped at it.
“The main intention is to show a continued commitment to the Scottish market and improve response times. I’m from a mechanical background so not only will I be representing sales, I’ll also be carrying out some degree of service and maintenance as well.
“Pat and I are travelling to Sweden towards the end of August to have a factory tour.
“In my first few weeks in the role, I’ve been out on installations with the guys, getting a deeper knowledge of the product and generally getting up to speed.”
Stuart said the tiltrotator concept is being “increasingly embraced” by the UK construction industry, with the market growing year on year. He cited the quality, durability and build height of Steelwrist units as being among the factors that help the manufacturer stand out.
“As more tiltrotator units go out in general, people are seeing first hand the advantage of what they can do and how much more versatile they make an excavator,” Stuart added.
He said the combination of both quality product and aftersales support is key. “The product can be excellent but if you’ve not got a service to back that up, it’s not going to work.”
