Bushey-based Citizen Machinery UK Ltd has appointed Sam Nottage-McNeice as European sales manager responsible for co-ordinating distributor operations that come under the Citizen Machinery UK network (these include France, Portugal, Spain, Scandinavia, the Middle East and Africa).

Deputy managing director Darren Wilkins said: “We are looking for younger people for our team in the UK, and Mr Nottage-McNeice is ideally qualified to work with the principals and CEOs of distributors that come under our responsibility, as well as report to Japan.”

Following an engineering background as an avionics technician in the REME, Mr Nottage-McNeice spent six years in machine tool sales before joining Citizen Machinery UK, which saw significant growth in machine tool exports during 2017, with more than 300 machines being installed; and as with the UK market, each dealership had a record year of trading (www.citizenmachinery.co.uk).

Furthermore, forecasts suggest this trend will continue through 2018.

Mr Nottage-McNeice says sales of machines incorporating Low Frequency Vibration (LFV) chip-control technology have given a massive international boost to Citizen’s Cincom sliding-head machine sales; LFV is being progressively introduced across the machine range, including the company’s Miyano fixed-head turn-mill centres.

“I am now finding that customers right across my territories have become very enthusiastic for Citizen to develop and feature this technology as soon as possible.”