People news from the world's rental industry

• Coates Hire is consolidating its two specialist rental divisions in Australia - Coates Shorco for shoring and trenching equipment and Coates Prestige for portable accommodation and toilets – into a new four region geographical structure in Australia. The four regions – North, South, East and West – will all be branded Coates. ther specialist divisions, Coates Offshore (based in the UK) and Allied Equipment, are retained and will report directly to chief executive officer Malcolm Jackman.

The general managers of the existing four regional divisions will become executive general managers, reporting to chief operating officer Garry Woods. The four are Ian Birch (North), Glenn Martin (East), Mark Rich (South) and Peter Court (West).

Mr Jackman said the objective of the reorganization was to “simplify the way in which we interact with the customer and create a unified culture and brand in Australia.”Coates said the restructuring will cost around A$9 million (5,4 million), with anticipated long-term annual savings of A$10 million ( 5,9 million).

• Former Sullair sales manager for France Roger Cordon has rejoined the company as a member of its Business Development Group. He took up the new position on 2 April and will be responsible for continental Europe and parts of Africa.

• Matt Fearon, formerly Genie Indust dent of operations in the US, has been appointed Genie vice president and managing director for Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa, reporting directly to president, Tim Ford. He replaces Jim Otley who has been on leave for several months.

“Europe now has a direct line to the president”, said Mr Fearon (pictured above), speaking to IRN at Genie Europe'sheadquarters in Grantham, UK. “The change is a statement of Tim For the importance of Europe,”he said.

With a background in mechanical engineering, Mr Fearon is a 12-year Genie veteran who for the past two and a half years has managed four production plants and all product design activities in Washington State. His responsibilities included managing the project to start manufacturing Z-45 and Z-51 articulated booms in Italy ever production facility outside of the US.

Mr Fearon told IRN that Genie “sees an enormous potential from manufacturing in Europe. We see the complexity required, but our goal is to make seamless the flow of equipment to our customers. Going from a distribution business [in Europe] to a manufacturing and distribution business requires a whole different infrastructure. I have the experience and the back in Redmond [to carry it out].”

Although this is Mr Fearon'st posting outside of the US, he has visited Europe many times over the past 12 years to train staff and to olaunch new products. He will travel monthly between Redmond and Europe before moving his family to the UK in August this year. In the meantime, he says, he is doing a lot of learning; like drinking from the end of the fire hose.”

• Compressor manufacturer CompAir has appointed Richard Sizer as UK regional sales manager for the North East region. Mr Sizer is experienced in the compressed air industry, having previously worked for a distributor of compressors, vacuum pumps and turbine blowers.

• Tomas Wängberg (pictured below) has been appointed president and chief executive officer of ABS Group, taking over from interim president and CEO Peter Aru, who remains head of Cardo Group, which owns ABS.

Mr Wängberg most recently served as president and CEO for Pharmadule Emtunga, a supplier to the pharmaceutical, biotech, oil and gas and telecom industries. Before that he worked for ABB in executive positions around the world. He took up his new post at ABS on 2 April.