Master Abrasives appoints Stephen Porteous to new sales role

The move follows the company's recent management buyout and sales and marketing director Paul Batson explains: "Stephen has specific sales and engineering experience, which will allow us to target growth in Scotland, providing customers there with local technical support of our extensive range of precision abrasive and general surface finishing products." Based in Glasgow, Mr Porteous is a formally trained mechanical engineering apprentice, having completed his indenture papers with Glacier Metals (now GGB), he continued to work with the company for a number of years afterwards. This was followed by a year-long working holiday in Australia. He returned to the UK broadening his experience working for another precision engineering company for a number of years, but returned to Australia, emigrating with his family. This time he stayed down under for eight years, working for five years with one of the country's leading conventional and CNC machine tool importers, Ron Mack Machinery. He explains: "We would source milling machines, lathes, sheet metalworking equipment and even woodworking machines, and supply them to customers all across the country. Here, I provided sales and service support, before moving to a new sales position with Pferd, for the rest of my time in Australia, prior to returning again to the UK in 2013." Although some products are similar to the Pferd products that Mr Porteous had been selling in Australia, he says: "The Master product portfolio is very wide and it provides further strings in the bow. I am looking forward to presenting these to engineering and manufacturing businesses in Scotland facing the challenge of global competition and looking for a performance advantage." Mr Batson adds: "Stephen's experience with Pferd, along with a fresh pair of eyes, will give us impetus in a territory that has not had direct technical representation in the past four years. We see our company focus on certain products, such as carbide burrs, pneumatic tools, coated abrasives and others, as an opportunity for Stephen to develop the territory and his knowledge of the industry." Mr Porteous concludes: "The extent of the advanced products supported by Master Abrasives has been a real eye-opener. However, the company has a great reputation in the industry, and the training I have received so far has been very professional. Also, the team based at Daventry are very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, from those in customer service through to the staff in stores. With their help, I am really confident that we can achieve significant growth over the coming years."