AGRICULTURE and Engineering Group, Carrs is pleased to announce that Hugh Pelham has formally been appointed as Chief Executive Officer.

Hugh succeeds Tim Davies, who steps down from the Board at the AGM but will remain with the Group during a short handover period to ensure a smooth transition.

He brings over 30 years’ experience in leading growing businesses across various sectors. Most recently, he served as Global President at Minova – a AU$500m division of ASX-listed Orica – manufacturing and supplying chemical and mechanical earth control products, adhesives and support equipment for the mining industry where he successfully led a turn-around of the business from making a $2m loss to a $21m profit.

Prior to this, from 2002 Hugh was Managing Director of Pyeroy Group Limited, a provider of specialist coatings, access and fabric maintenance services to the oil & gas, chemical, marine and rail industries with responsibility for a team of 2,400 people. Having personally invested in the business with its founder, Pyeroy Group Limited was sold to Wood Group in 2013, where Hugh remained as Managing Director of Wood Group Industrial Services Limited. Over the 15-year period, the business grew from sales of £34m to £140m.

Hugh has a strong track record of generating value through the achievement of both long-term profitable growth and successful business turnarounds in both a domestic UK business and an international business operating in 40 countries. He holds a BA in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.

Hugh Pelham said: “Thanks to the able stewardship of Tim Davies over the past eight years, I am fortunate to be taking over a very strong organisation which has proved its resilience beyond doubt this past year.

“I will not, however, be forgetting that, at heart, this is a Cumbrian business but with a global outlook. One of the many advantages of leading Carr’s Group is getting to relocate to this beautiful region and, with a third of our employees also located in Cumbria, I will not have to travel far to meet many of the brilliant people who make Carr’s what it is today.

“Carr’s Group is a proud member of the Cumbrian community and, going forward, I’m confident that the area’s robust local economy will continue to serve as a dependable base from which to navigate our global operations.”