Ben Balfour – head of operations
Advanced’s home-grown success story, Ben has risen to the top after joining the company on the shop floor as a 22-year-old. His ability and industry quickly marked him out as being of managerial calibre and he was appointed production manager within six months of entering the company.
He has had 14 years of hands-on experience since then managing all aspects of the business, covering production, warehousing, administration and transport. The nature of the business has changed greatly in that time, with the company evolving from a paper-based system when he began into an industry leader in IT - a transformation which Ben has been closely involved with.
The management challenges have also developed over time, with the workforce rising from 30 to 300-plus and changing its composition to the point where 14 languages are now spoken. Ben led from the front during Advanced’s drive for Investor in People status and has now had his managerial skills certified by gaining an NVQ level V in operations management.
Darren Outlaw – head of distribution
Darren has been involved in the transport and distribution industry for the past 20 years and has experience in pretty much every sector. He started out working in a small general haulage company and the early hands-on experience ensured he learnt every aspect of general haulage, from driving HGVs to running the company. Darren used this crucial learning curve as a platform for development within the much bigger companies he later worked for. It fostered in Darren an ethos of small company commitment and he applied this to service and customer focus in the environments of the larger multi-user companies. Progressing through several medium sized general haulage companies, Darren took a position with Rickaby & Lee, a specialist FMCG distribution provider, as Fleet Controller.
Promotions and Company takeovers saw Darren fill several roles such as General Hub Traffic Manager to on site Contact Manager and finally Contact Manager for the new company Hammond Logistics (now Bibby Distribution). This last position was located on the client’s site, St Ives Print, and involved operating a dedicated fleet of vehicles serving two further sites and five other companies within the group. It served as invaluable experience of being under constant customer scrutiny: “the captive audience”.
Feeling the need for a new challenge, Darren certainly found one when he joined Advanced three-and-a-half years ago. He was asked to grow the business from a standing start and it has now reached the situation where it accounts for 28% of the company’s revenue. Darren, who holds the Department of Transport’s national and international certificates of professional competence (CPCs), feels Advanced’s greatest strength is the quality of its staff, both in the control room and on the road - fleet controller Alistair Campbell and assistant transport manager Richard Needler have a total of 50 years experience between them in general haulage. Darren believes that service and flexibility are what have allowed Advanced’s logistics division to grow so fast and he says he is determined to maintain the principle that ‘every customer is a big customer’ as the company continues to grow.
Dale Pickup - Health and Safety Manager
Dale began his professional career in the glass and glazing industry in 1995 where he was trained in ISO Quality Management by the British Standards Institution (BSI), obtaining accreditations and kitemarks for his employers.
In 1999 he moved to Pilkington UK Ltd to work in Quality Management and moved further into the field when he quickly recognised the need for sucessful Health and Safety Regimes in such dangerous environments. Dale then joined ARC International as the UK Quality, Safety and Environment Manager in 2004 to ensure that the French company's Leeds-based distribution network complied with all UK law and legislation.
In 2005 Dale moved into the Security Industry to continue his career in Health and Safety, in addition to becoming a representative of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA).
Dale finally arrived at Advanced in April 2010 to take up the role of Health & Safety Manager. He brought with him formal NEBOSH qualification, years of experience and a thorough knowledge of working in dangerous environments and industries with excellent safety records.
His goal is to make Advanced a safe place for staff and customers and his mission is to ensure that safety is a top priority and a constant factor in everything we do as a company.
