We are pleased to announce that Steve Caygill has been appointed as FIRMUS Group’s General Manager.
Steve will be overseeing business operations across all locations.
Previous to this role, Steve lived in UAE, working for Byrne Equipment Rental as their Chief Commercial Officer. As CCO, Steve managed numerous branch locations across 6 countries, with over 1,000 staff and 14,000 assets.
Steve has a thorough understanding of the waste industry having worked at Barry Bros (now known as Cleanaway) early on in his career.
We know he’ll do well in the new role.
Q&A with Steve Caygill on how he’ll help you and your business succeed…
Steve, what brought you to the GM role? And how has your experience prepared you to manage FIRMUS Group to better support our customers and their industries?
I had been speaking to the owners for around 12 months and liked the story and vision they had for FIRMUS Group, and where they want to take the business.
Around six months ago I was on a visit back to Australia and informally visited the branches across the group. I could see opportunities for improvement at FIRMUS Group as I had experienced the same things across the 18 branch network I was involved with, and as such knew I could support the shareholders in their strategy.
As the company has grown through acquisition, the need to standardise and unify what where individual entities into a group has been a priority. As we do this, FIRMUS group gains strength in its volumes to suppliers, providing us with greater levels of business and equally, greater buying capacity and reduced costs, making our offering to our clients more competitive and cost effective.
Last year was a big year of change for FIRMUS Group. Have you identified any pressure points resulting from our expansion and how will your role as GM assist in alleviating them, to benefit our customers?
The business has challenges like any business growing at a rapid rate – “good problems”. The shareholders are both industry experts in their respective areas within the business, and my role is to free them up so they can remain laser focused on the growth and product development demanded by our clients and the wider market.
Tell us your plans for FIRMUS Group’s future and the direct impact it will have on our customers. Where do you want to take FIRMUS Group and why is it important for our customers that we go there?
“…some of our clients have an assortment of branded units…we have carefully curated our service teams to have the technical skill and experience to provide quality servicing and maintenance for all of our clients’ assets, irrespective of the make and model.”
The market is mature in the sense of fleet age across the country and that needs to be supported with best-in-class replacement products as our clients’ companies retire their fleet. In response to this, we are rapidly growing our production capacity to support a clear demand from our clients.
Understanding that after sale service support is imperative to our clients’ success, we have established dedicated service centres across three states, with plans for further expansion. We are simply supporting the demand and as such moving with the market our clients are generating.
With increased volumes, makes and models of vac truck products available on the market, some of our clients have an assortment of branded units, some of which are not manufactured by FIRMUS Group.
To assist customers with a diverse fleet, we have carefully curated our service teams to have the technical skill and experience to provide quality servicing and maintenance for all of our clients’ assets, irrespective of the make and model. We are well placed to expand the support for our clients as they grow their businesses so they can maintain their delivery standards for their respective clients.
As part of settling into the GM role, what are you spending your time on over the next three months and what should our customers expect as part of these next steps?
As of now it is very much an inward view to understand gaps in our service delivery in all aspects. Standardisation closes those gaps to achieve delivery standards that as a group, we are striving for.
I am establishing clarity of local and national roles within the team and providing our people with internal opportunities to grow.
I’ll be identifying training and staff development. Our brand is one thing – our people are everything. Our people are the ultimate influencers on our customers’ experience and reoccurring business, so we must empower and support them to be that for our clients.
Finally, revisiting of targets / KPIs based on recent strategy meetings with the shareholders and subsequently developing and rolling these targets across the business, with or on behalf of the shareholders.