Sales Team

Joe Rotherham – business development executive (retail)

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.

Paul Graham – business development executive (brands)

For Advanced to be able to boast that its management team contains expertise in every part of the garment supply chain, we would need someone on board with experience in sourcing, shipping and foreign manufacturing. Paul is that man, boasting a total of 20 years working in the clothing industry all over the world.

He started out working for UK-based M&S supplier Bairdwear, spending nine years working as a production manager and production executive before looking further afield for opportunities. One certainly came his way when he was given the role of Country Director for Sri Lanka by Clairemont. Heavily involved in sourcing and tariff issues, Paul did not end up staying in just the one country and was soon forced to rack up the miles visiting suppliers in Bangladesh, India, Hong Kong, Mexico, Thailand, Egypt and Israel. A desire for a more settled existence saw Paul take a role as production manager for Vanderbilt at a start-up factory in Morocco and he finally returned to the UK once the operation had been consolidated and was running smoothly.

Back in the UK, Paul entered another aspect of the garment industry when he headed up both production and sales at garment processors XIT18. He was one of the prime assets Advanced gained when they acquired the company in 2004.

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.