Finning Group UK has promoted Christine Hardy to the newly created role of UK Training and Development Manager. Previously Training and Development Manager for Hewden, Christine will now manage training and development across all functions of the Finning business, including Finning Construction, Finning Power and Hewden.

Christine will continue to run training programmes for Hewden, but will take on the responsibility of progressing effective strategies for learning and development at Hewden and Finning. In particular, focus will be placed on in-house apprenticeship programmes, along with the development of supervisory and management roles, to ensure a geographically diverse workforce is provided with a unified training programme.

Mike Davies, HR Director, Finning Group UK, said: "Hewden and Finning have gone through substantial changes in the last year as part of a programme to improve Finning Group's UK performance. The decision to focus on those business areas where we are established leaders has resulted in significant changes, including the sale of non core Finning and Hewden businesses.

"We are now well positioned to extend the gap between us and the competition in both our Caterpillar dealership and other core business units across Finning and Hewden. Christine has developed excellent training programmes for the Hewden business, evident through the standards of work being produced by employees at all levels, not to mention through Hewden’s lost time incident (LTI) statistics from 2006 to present. We are pleased she will be bringing those skills to bear across the group."

Previously fulfilling a HR Management role at Safeway, Christine has worked in various management development roles at Safeway, both operationally and head office-based.

Christine commented, "The Finning UK business continues to deliver a significant return on investment in training in terms of increased individual and team capability. Ultimately, this means we can continue to offer our customers the best possible service as well as fulfilling the needs of our employees to strive for maximum performance."