30.09.2013

Richard Miller to leave Lavendon

Richard Miller executive sales director at Nationwide Platforms, the UK operation of Lavendon, has confirmed that he is leaving the business at the end of October.

Miller joined the Lavendon group when it acquired Luton based Panther Work Platforms, which he jointly owned with Brian Fleckney, in early 2006.

Later that year he took on the responsibility for co-ordinating the activities of other independent acquisitions in the group, including Kestrel and AMP. Those business were incorporated into Panther in 2008 along with Higher Platforms. Miller was then managing director of the ‘Panther group’.
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Richard Miller

As Panther and Nationwide Platforms began to merge into Lavendon UK and then Nationwide Platforms in 2009, Miller became managing director sales and marketing for the merged operations, and was instrumental in setting up the group’s new product committee.

More recently he has focused on sales for Nationwide Platforms which operates a fleet of almost 11,000 aerial work platforms.

While he will formally leave the payroll in a months time, he will in fact continue to work with Lavendon on a consulting basis, covering a number of sales projects which will keep him occupied well into the new year.

He says that he has no plans for any future ventures at this stage and simply felt that the time is right for some ‘time-out’ having worked non-stop since leaving school. He also added that his departure from Nationwide is on very good terms and harmonious on both sides and that he is looking forward to continuing to work with Lavendon for some time.

Vertikal Comment

While Millers staff were told of Miller's departure just over a week ago as we reported on our Twitter feed at the time, it is only today that we were able to speak to Miller himself.

He will most certainly be missed. He, along with many of the other owners of the regional companies that were acquired by Lavendon, helped the business regain a strong regional presence that the original Nationwide Access had lost after the business tried to formularise and centralise its operations, becoming more ‘corporate’ and less people friendly.

The strategy worked although Miller was the last owner to have remained on board full time, after having sold out – staying over six years. Many of the other owners have re-entered the platform rental business either directly or by investing and assisting others.

While Miller has not ruled out remaining in the access business, he is adamant that he has absolutely no plans to get back into the rental business any time soon.