Safehinge Primera leadership team: John Bertram, Craig Paterson, Kevin Addie, Chris Foster
Developing ground-breaking products to improve people’s lives and delivering great customer service are the founding principles of our business. As we continue to grow, our focus remains unchanged.
To support the increasing demand for our products, our team has inevitably grown, bringing with it the need to adapt our structure. We’ve invested in a new leadership team to help us better serve our customers, strengthen our partnerships and support our internal team.
You’ll notice some new appointments and some familiar faces making up the team, each bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience.
Allow us to introduce:
John Bertram - Head of Sales and Commercial
We welcomed John to the team at the start of this month, and he’s already hit the ground running. As his title suggests, John is responsible for scaling and supporting our direct and partner sales channels as well as developing our sales team. He'll lead projects from initial enquiry through to order point.
John brings a vast amount of sales, leadership and business development experience from previous positions in global organisations - most notably his time spent with Honeywell and Johnson Controls (formerly ADT). John is well versed in selling cutting edge technology solutions in complex sectors including the NHS, custodial and government - so we're confident his understanding of these sectors will ensure our customer's needs are always at the forefront of our processes and solutions.
Craig Paterson - Head of Operations
One of the more familiar faces on the leadership team, Craig joined us in April 2018 from General Electric (GE) where he held Operations and General Manager roles.
Craig’s extensive experience in operations and global supply chain, coupled with the sizeable impact he’s made on our planning, people and processes since he joined SHP, demonstrate he’s the right person for the job.
He’s responsible for project activity from order point through to delivery of goods to site. Craig will focus on streamlining our project-led operations, driving profitable growth, and developing the skills and expertise within the team to deliver the high standards our customers expect from us.
Chris Foster - Head of Service
Newly appointed Chris is set to formally join the team in February 2020 following his current role as Resident Maintenance Engineering Manager at SSI Schaefer. He’ll lead our Service team who’ll be responsible for all on-site activity including pre-sales surveys, installations, after care, and customer support and maintenance.
Chris brings significant experience in developing service teams and coordinating planned preventative and reactive maintenance programmes.
Our smart products including electronic access control and soon-to-be-launched door alarm require on-going servicing to remain effective. As the appetite for these products continues to grow, we’ve highlighted the need to expand capacity nationally to better support our expanding customer base.
Commenting on his new role, Chris said: “I’m excited to join the company! I feel the company values are aligned with my own core values and look forward to delivering a world class service to our customers and their clients.”
Kevin Addie - Head of Improvement and Quality
Joining SHP over two years ago, Kevin is well-known by customers and partners alike. He's managed significant projects and has been instrumental in improving profitability and facilitating growth since he joined us.
Over the past year, he’s been focused on developing our electronic access offering - a business unit we expect will grow substantially.
Kevin is highly experienced in total quality management from supply through to manufacture, joining us from Keihin, a top tier supplier to Honda. He’ll be responsible for streamlining operations for growth, and embedding quality and safety procedures across the group. We’re confident that Kevin will continue to drive improvement across all our main product families and wider group activities.
The newly appointed team will be responsible for improving the speed, accuracy and satisfaction of projects delivered. Our customers will benefit from best-in-class products and technology alongside increased quality and service standards.
Director Martin Izod commented: “We’re lucky to have a passionate, energetic team at the heart of our business and we’re delighted to introduce our new leadership team to support our people, our customers and our continued domestic and international growth.”
Alongside Martin, Directors Philip Ross and David Falkingham will remain at the helm, defining our strategic vision and ultimately shaping the future of the business, while the leadership team will be tasked with operational delivery of projects and the development of people and skills.
Martin continued; “With the right team in place and products ready for launch in the new year, it’s an exciting time for us - we are laying the foundation for our next phase of growth which we expect to be sizeable.”
Congratulations to our new leadership team and welcome aboard John and Chris! You’ll be seeing a lot more of this quartet in the coming months, we’re sure.
