KIRKCALDY-headquartered Astrak has announced the appointment of Jonathan Outterson to the newly created position of UK head of sales, as part of its plans for future expansion.
The Europe-wide undercarriage and wear parts supplier welcomes Jonathan a year on from appointing Martyn Pointer as group sales director. It was in conversing with Martyn that Jonathan made the decision to join the Astrak team.
He told Project Plant, “I spoke to Martyn Pointer and he gave me an outline of where the business had come from and where their ambitions were, and the role he was looking for me to do. It ticked many boxes for me. They are a very ambitious company; I truly believe that we have a great opportunity to continue to grow and continue to develop our fantastic team.”
Jonathan brings to the role a background in financial services, having previously worked in the commercial banking sector. He then went on to work for commercial vehicle rental company, Northgate, before joining Avis when the company was diversifying into commercial vehicle rental. There he was project lead on Avis’s acquisition of Blackburn-based ACL hire.
Jonathan said he welcomed the opportunity to help grow Astrak and develop its sales team through a combination of mentoring, coaching and skillset development.
He explained, “We have a team of twelve in the sales team with a presence in London and the south east, the south west, the Midlands along with our Scottish base so my focus will be meeting customers, building local strategies with the team and developing the wider proposition throughout the UK. We have an external sales team, supported by an internal business development team – all supported by a customer services team who generate towards 2,000 quotes a week, so what we have to do is make sure that these parts are joined up – that they’re working as effectively as possible and we are making the most of every opportunity that comes from our customer base.”
Jonathan believes that the quality of Astrak’s core products and customer service levels “should allow us to be very confident in the marketplace” and part of his role would be to ensure the sales teams are confident in the product and are engaging with the customers to understand any issues that those customers may have with their undercarriage parts fulfilment and how Astrak can solve those problems. “I’m very ambitious,” Jonathan added. “I’m ambitious for the team, for the business and looking to develop myself as well within the company. I would encourage any business who buy undercarriage parts to engage with Astrak and find out how we can make the difference.”
