Hove-based C Dugard Ltd (www.dugard.com) has appointed Colin Thomson to support on-going growth of the Hanwha brand.

He joined the company in January as the product sales manager tasked with managing the new range of Hanwha sliding-head turning centres throughout the UK.

Dugard was appointed as the UK agent for the South Korean Hanwha brand towards the end of 2018; and to ensure the success of this new venture, it took on sliding-head specialist Mr Thomson to manage the brand and “offer UK manufacturers an alternative to the historically monopolised sliding-head sector”.

The Hanwha range of machines will also be supported by the existing Dugard sales team.

With almost 30 years in manufacturing, Mr Thomson started his engineering career as a machine shop apprentice at a prominent aerospace sub-contract company in Essex, where he worked for 14 years.

He then moved into technical sales and account management, working with leading machine tool and cutting-tool manufacturers — including a major manufacturer of sliding-head lathes.