My name is Garnon Thornton, I am 38 and married with a 14yr old son. I am the Business Manager for Nationwide Platforms in South Wales.

I joined Nationwide Access in August 2001, I was looking for a new challenge and I wanted to work for a business that I felt would give me an opportunity for real growth and personal development. I felt that NWA had an abundance of career opportunities and decided to join the business.

I started as a Workshop engineer in the Cardiff branch, by December 2003 I was promoted to Workshop Foreman looking after the engineering part of the business. Shortly after my promotion I was asked to manage the Bristol branch’s engineering department along side Cardiff. This lasted for several months until we trained a new Worksop Foreman for Bristol.

In April 2005 I changed my career path and was interviewed and offered the position of Customer Service Manager for the Hire Desk in the Cardiff Hub. That saw a total change in direction from my career to date in engineering, however I felt I needed to gain experience in all aspects of the business if I was to continue my progress and development.

In January 2007 I was promoted to the position of Operations manager for the South West Region. This role allowed me to use the skills and experiences I had already gained as well as developing new skills in the Transport side of the business.

In September 2008 I was promoted to the role of Business Manager for South Wales for the newly formed company Nationwide Platforms. As ever I am extremely eager to continue my development within the new business and I am looking forward to working in the new management structure within the South of the UK. I have seen many, many changes over my period of time within the business and I take great pride in working for the UK’s market leader in Powered Access Rental……. Nationwide Platforms.

I plan to start a management degree next year that the business are sponsoring and supporting. Lavendon PLC - Lavendon Access Services – Nationwide Platforms invest time, commitment and resources to it’s staff…… after all, a business’s biggest resource are the people whom work for it..

My name is Carly, I am 27 and I have lived in Norwich all my life.  I am the Hire Office Manager for Nationwide Platforms in Norwich.

Having gained experience within Customer Service and Administration from two previous jobs, three years ago I joined a Plant Hire company called Wizard Workspace.

Wizard Workspace was a small company that had plans for growth. With machines placed in depots throughout the country, hires were actually controlled by two offices, one North and one South.

As a Hire Desk Controller my role was to quote customers, take orders and complete all relevant paperwork to ensure that the hire happened and all details were correct. Each day was hectic and when the office in the North was closed to cut costs my days got even busier.

Then just over a year ago The Lavendon Group bought Wizard. Joining Lavendon opened a new world of possibility for Wizard. In addition to its own fleet we had access to machines from other companies owned by our new parent company. Of these companies Nationwide Access was at top of the list to use.

In 2007 my role as Hire Desk Controller ceased and I began my career with Nationwide Access as a Customer Service Advisor.

As a Customer Service Advisor my role has been more job specific. I use a system that is very accurate in terms of availability so I can usually give an immediate answer. I no longer manually create run sheets or reconcile stock. In short, I can actually provide Customer Service without distraction.

Just as my role changed so too did my opportunities. At Wizard I worked in a single office where the prospect of promotion was slim to none, Nationwide was a company that had prospects of different positions as well as locations. These prospects have been most apparent lately as the company moves forward as Nationwide Platforms.

As a result of these new opportunities, from November I’ll be starting a new position as Hire Office Manager.

Its an exciting time to be part of the company and as each department settles after the name change I know that its going to be a good place to be.

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