icould

Stuart Thomas

Stuart Thomas

00:00:03 My name is Stuart Thomas, and my job title is Key Account Manager for Charcon Hard Landscaping, part of Aggregate Industries. We go about approaching the major accounts, identifying who are the big players in the market place, and then develop on relationships, and try and maximise the business that we get out of them as a company.

00:00:29 It’s very enjoyable to visit sites that we have been involved with. I was very heavily involved with the Terminal Five project down at Heathrow. And despite the initial hiccups, which we weren't involved with, it was great to walk down some of the – the large spans of landscaping down there and say yeah that – I managed that project, and I got involved and sold this product. I'm afraid I am one of those people that points out to the kids and say - yeah, I supplied that curve and things like that, which can be very irritating to them, yeah! (LAUGHS) It’s very sad.

00:02:00 My interest in business came from predominantly my father. He ran his own business based in Birmingham. And that I saw grow from a very very small business, run out of a small office, a shed in the back really, to a large factory in the centre of Birmingham. That really excited me, and he was a big motivator for me really, quite an inspiration. I went on to chose Business Administration at University, and I studied down at Cardiff University, where I got a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with that kind of degree, but I thought it was a nice general degree, and would open up various career paths at the end of it. I got the choice to do some work experience with Aggregate Industries and jumped at it, and shortly after doing two weeks of work experience with the company, they offered me a position on their graduate training scheme. It seemed like it was a very very good career path for me, and lots and lots of career opportunities within the company, so yeah, I was over the moon to be offered such a position.

00:02:27 As soon as I joined the industry I was told that if you’re in the industry for more than two years you’re in it for life, and I firmly believe that will probably be the case now.

00:02:39 I've been within Aggregate Industries for around about ten years. There’s been so many different things that I've been involved with. Trips out to China, trips to Portugal, and some very different things that I've done. I've been involved with marketing, I've been involved with sales, I've been involved with production, I've been involved out on the road laying tarmac, which was a very different experience. But there's so many different elements that you can get involved with, and I think that's very exciting. You can find a job that really suits you. The next step could be a more senior Key Account role, it could be a more senior sales or commercial role, I could change paths completely and go onto production sides, or it could be a general management role – who knows really.

00:03:35 If I could do any job I think I would like to run a business like Aggregate Industries. It’s such a large dominating force in the UK construction industry now, and I would like to be involved more with the strategy side of the business, and put my ideas more into how the business runs day to day.

00:03:58 ENDS