Mike Ricketts – Sales Director
Sales Director Mike Ricketts (CMILT) brings a wealth of experience in International Supply Chain Management to the Advanced team.
Mike joined Advanced in late November 2009 combining new working challenges with a return to his West Yorkshire roots. He has more than 20 years of managerial experience comprising National and International Shipping, Commercial Trade and Supply Chain Management and is a Charted Member of the Institute of Logistics and Transport.
Mike’s formative years in business were spent in the shipping industry with Maersk where he worked across the client and product portfolio, starting in International Freight before becoming Commercial Trade Manager for the UK and then Regional Account Manager with Pan Asia responsibility for European clients.
Top-level negotiation and consultancy was the hallmark of Mike’s time at Maersk and these skills saw him appointed as Maersk’s Asia-Europe Sales Director based in Hong Kong for four years. The role saw Mike design International Supply Chain solutions for blue chip European retail, sports and clothing clients, with a particular focus on the consultative selling of value added services as part of clients’ strategic development plans.
The next phase of Mike’s career saw him embedded in large Retail Supply Chains. The first step was with Maersk, working as a client development manager with a major high street retailer’s international inbound import supply chain (retailer’s turnover circa £2.8bn).
Mike then took the position of Head of Global Transportation for the Body Shop with the responsibility to lead, develop and deliver strategic inbound and outbound supply chain activities across 4 global regions (UK, Europe, Asia Pacific, Americas). The territory comprised 54 countries across 3 major sales channels - 2500+ global stores, 10,000+ Body Shop at Home Consultants and a newly-launched internet site.
Mike’s skill in high calibre sales was recognised by Maersk appointing him logistics sales trainer for Asia and his track record demonstrates his customer focus and emphasis on results. He heads the Advanced sales team and is dedicated to ensuring that the company continues to ‘deliver the promise’ for its customers in terms of value and performance.
Caroline Knowles – Customer Service Champion
After 15 years with major home shopping company Empire Stores, Caroline is the member of the Advanced team who knows exactly what it’s like to be on the other end of the phone when dealing with logistics and pre-retail services providers. That's why she was the obvious choice to become Advanced's very own customer service champion.
Caroline was involved in many management disciplines at Empire and spent the last nine years as a Buying and Merchandising manager of the Ladies Fashions department.
Caroline joined Advanced in 1999 as administration manager to help cope with the demands of the company’s surge in growth. Her empathy with customers, however, was too great to ignore and Advanced felt the best use of her talents would be to combine a sales and administrative function. She fulfilled this dual role from 2002 until 2009 and her success was demonstrated by the company’s continued rapid growth.
Caroline was appointed to her current role as customer service champion in early 2010. Her new job is to ensure that all of our clients receive a seamless customer-focused service from Advanced.
Joe Rotherham – Business Development
The elder statesman of the business, Joe enjoyed a successful merchandising career with Littlewoods before starting work in the fledgling processing industry in 1980. The next 20 years were spent in the role of sales director for Raygrade Ltd, developing one of the UK’s first major warehousing and processing companies.
This long-term relationship ended in 2000 after a strategy dispute and Joe took a brief sabbatical before returning to the industry when he accepted a short-term consultancy to set up an in-house processing operation for Makro Ltd. The project was completed successfully and Advanced then approached Joe to draw on his vast experience and assist with controlling the growing pains of the expansion to two sites. Once the move had proved successful, Joe then moved on to a more outward facing role for the company, tasked with developing and improving all of Advanced’s customer business relations.
Tony Hennigan – Advanced Driver Supply
A comprehensive knowledge of the business is vital if customers are to feel confident they are in safe hands. Tony certainly possesses that knowledge, having begun his career in transport as a driver 26 years ago.
He started his career working with Silentnight Group after passing his HGV licence in 1980, but his excellent analytical skills soon saw him promoted to the post of route planner, with responsibilities including load scheduling. The company realised, however, that not all of Tony’s talents were being utilised in the backroom and he was given a role as transport consultant liasing with major clients, such as Harrods and Selfridges.
Tony decided his ground-up experience of the industry would be valuable in the growing sector of transport recruitment and he joined Rotherwood Recruitment in 1995 as Driver Consultant. He was approached in 2000 to head up Premier Personnel’s new driver division and took on the challenging task of recruiting new drivers and new clients for the business.
The task was completed successfully and Tony was ready for a new challenge when he joined Advanced in July 2006, with a brief to repeat the success he’d had at Premier in helping a new business achieve its growth potential.
