Go Plant Fleet Services has appointed Phil Quelch (pictured), formerly national fleet and engineering director, as chief operating officer, a new role to help grow the business.

The move follows Paul Langham’s decision to take early retirement from his role as operations director.

Graham Hale, chief executive of Go Plant Fleet Services, said: “As we strive to achieve our new company vision, Phil will play a key role in driving our ‘one culture’ and ‘one best practice’ approach.

“He’ll help to ensure we’re all heading in the same direction with safety, procurement, sales, fleet, environmental and operational delivery completely aligned under one reporting line. 

“Another key aspect of Phil’s role will be to recognise the economies of scale that exists across our combined national depot network to attract new business revenues as we work towards developing a unified group business.”

Langham joined the company in 2003 and has overseen two of the company’s main divisions – Operated Hire and Contract Hire. He also played a key role in the merger between Go Plant and Essential Fleet Services in 2017.

He will remain on hand over the coming months to ensure the smooth transition of any handovers, said Go Plant Fleet Services. 

Hale said: “I would like to take thank Paul for all of his brilliant work over the past 16 years. He has made a significant contribution to the business, particularly during the last two years following our merger, which would not have been possible without his hard work, knowledge and management skills.

“I’ve worked alongside Paul for only a short time, but have quickly grown to appreciate and value his passion, enthusiasm and energy for the business and its people.

“He’s regarded with a huge amount of respect here and I know he’ll be very much missed.”

Ben Gilmore, formerly national operations manager, will assume full responsibility for the Operated and Self-Drive Sweeper arm of the business.

Go Plant Fleet Services provides access to specialist commercial vehicles including refuse collection trucks, gritters, cage tippers and road sweepers on both short and long-term hire, as well as offering a suite of fleet management services, including repair and maintenance.

The company, which has headquarters in Leicestershire, merged with Essential Fleet Services in July, 2017 – a move backed by private equity house Endless LLP.

Significant expansion has followed with major investment in new technology, the opening of a string of new depots and the establishment of an owned spot hire fleet as well as investment in ‘back to black’ Beam sweepers, creating the largest fleet in the UK.

The company, which has 40 years’ experience in the industry, now has revenue of around £85 million and employs around 800 staff across 49 depots and service centres nationwide.

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