Amdega Recruits Mike Willink as Chief Operating Officer

29th September 2010

Amdega is delighted to announce the appointment of Mike Willink to the main board as Chief Operating Officer. Mr Willink's appointment quickly follows the significant investment into the company by UK private equity house, Endless LLP, in August 2010.

The appointment is central to Amdega's wider strategy of driving a series of major operational improvement initiatives through the business on the back of the fresh investment provided by Endless.

Mr Willink has worked in senior roles with Rolls Royce Marine (where he led several operational and supply chain improvement projects across Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and China), Moores Furniture (part of US giant Masco) and Howdens Joinery.

Steve Sutherland, Chairman of Amdega, who joined the business at the time of Endless' investment in August, said "We are thrilled to welcome Mike to Amdega. Mike has an outstanding track record in driving positive change and improvement initiatives through organisations, and he brings impressive dynamism and energy. Mike's pedigree and leadership abilities are a perfect fit to what is needed at Amdega and securing someone of his calibre is testament to our strategy and ambition for the business."

Mike said "It is tremendously exciting to be joining Amdega at such a key time in its history. There are challenges, however with the fresh investment support behind us, I'm excited by the numerous improvement opportunities for us to pursue. Amdega has a very proud heritage and our aim is to be once again renowned for the highest operational excellence and quality."

ENDS

About Amdega Limited:

Founded in 1874, Amdega is the world’s oldest and most prestigious timber conservatory business.

Amdega is based in Faverdale, Darlington and employs approximately 200 people.

Endless LLP invested significant capital into the business in August 2010.

About Endless LLP:

Endless is a national private equity house focusing on buyout and acquisition opportunities for UK-headquartered businesses. The firm has offices in Manchester, Leeds, London and Birmingham.

Endless is responsible for investments with a combined turnover of more than £1 billion and more than 6,500 employees. Some of its investments include Crown Paints Group, The Works retail chain, Trutex Schoolwear and AMCO.

Endless is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority.

Conservatory Planning Permission

Are you being shrewd in the current climate and thinking of adding a bespoke timber conservatory to your home instead of moving property? If so you may be confused or even worried about obtaining planning permission, Building Regulations and Listed Building Consents that could be required to allow you to proceed. If that’s the case then Amdega Blogger is pleased to advise that you should look no further than Amdega where we have longstanding expertise in conservatory design and the associated planning process which is second to none in our marketplace.

Regardless of if your preference is for a classic conservatory, contemporary orangery, modern conservatory, glass house for a home office or even a conservatory roof for a pool house we all know that obtaining the necessary consents can be time consuming and a bit of a chore, to say the least. That’s where our in house Planning Division comes in. Basically they handle the whole process on behalf of our clients, something that we know not every conservatory supplier will do.

When I spoke to Gareth Elvidge, Amdega’s longstanding Planning Manager, this week he had this to say. “Good news on the planning front! Last year’s rules governing extensions to properties including conservatories and orangeries obviously affected everything we do. However, these have now been relaxed by the Government which means that clients who have previously been denied the addition of beautiful glazed structures on their properties can now have them without requiring formal planning permission.”

Gareth continued “Regardless of this relaxation, we do appreciate just how important peace of mind is for our clients so every single conservatory and orangery order that we receive is immediately subjected to our rigorous technical and planning checks here at Amdega. As part of this process we also ensure that we obtain written confirmation from the local authority that planning is not required. In the event that it is, we don’t let this delay matters – we appreciate how our clients are eagerly anticipating owning an Amdega and being mindful of this we now make sure that the full planning application is submitted within days of receiving the order – in fact, practically just after the customer’s ink is drying on the order form!”

I’ll be speaking to the Sales & Marketing Director next week to advise what to expect after you have received our conservatory brochure and you would like to meet with our local conservatory designer. All good stuff.

More about the new adverts

As I have already mentioned in an earlier posting there has been a major buzz of anticipation about the place with the January launch of our new advertisements for the timber conservatories and orangeries. We’ve all been buying the Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Observer and Sunday Times over the past two weeks to see how they look on the page and yes, they have exceeded our expectations!

The new ads are based round the concept of being proud to own an Amdega, each individual ad features a different person assigned to a different conservatory or orangery together with the strapline “My Amdega” in bold, prominent text – people who are proud to own their bespoke conservatory or orangery. One ad features the character we have nicknamed ‘Traditional Pearl’ with her traditional conservatory that is used to house an array of plants. Another ad features chic “Amy” and her contemporary orangery living space.

Since we launched the new style ads we have enjoyed a continuously high level of enquiries for brochures as well as people looking to arrange their free, no obligation visit from one of our local conservatory designers. We have already used the concept of My Amdega for summerhouses … but more of that later!

Amdega Conservatories

Welcome to the official blog of Amdega Conservatories.