25.09.2015

New CEO for HSS

Chris Davies, chief executive of UK based rental company HSS has stepped down and is replaced by chief operating officer John Gill.
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John Gill

Davies,61, has led the general rental company – which runs the second largest powered access fleet in the UK, for nine years, joining the company from Disney Stores Europe in 2006. Gill, 48, has taken over as chief executive today, he joined the company as chief financial officer in 2009 and was made chief operating officer last year.
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Chris Davies

He joined HSS, from Screwfix where he was finance director, prior to that he held other roles at Screwfix parent Kingfisher and before that with GE Capital. Davies will apparently remain with the company until the end of the year to ensure a "smooth handover".

The move follows a tough time since the company floated on the stock market earlier this year, with profits struggling and the shares plunging around 70 percent from their launch price.

HSS chairman Alan Peterson said: “John's record and strong leadership skills as both CFO and COO have ensured that he has been a central part of the board's thinking on succession planning for some time. John has been closely involved in developing and implementing the group's distribution and logistics strategy and is ideally placed to lead the rebasing of our cost structure and make improvements to operating margin. I'm confident that he will make the step-up to the Chief Executive role quickly and effectively”.