Patchell new CEO for Roadmaster
COLIN PATCHELL, A MEMBER OF A LEADING FAMILY in New Zealand’s heavy trailer manufacturing industry, is now the CEO of Roadmaster.
Patchell, who worked at the Patchell Group for 11 years – rising to the position of group general manager – moved to Roadmaster as operations general manager after a 2011 restructure.
Two years later, a Roadmaster restructure saw him change roles to sales manager.
Now, under current owners the Modern Transport Group, he’s been appointed chief executive officer, a role previously held by Ross Bell.
Patchell, who has built 20 years’ experience in the industry since graduating from Otago University with a management degree, says “it’s really just a functional name change…
“At the end of the day it’s putting on the big boy’s pants and getting stuck into it.”
He believes that, given the market situation over the last 12-months, Roadmaster has probably been doing better than it might have, but says there is “a lot of low-hanging fruit to grab hold of ” to improve its position.
It is currently ranked fourth NZ trailermaker, in terms of 2020 trailer registrations – behind leader Patchell, Fruehauf and Modern Transport stablemate, MTE.
His short-term objective is to “make sure COVID doesn’t beat us in the arse.” He explains: “We suffered a bit of hardship over the COVID issue and I think nationally the trailer manufacturing numbers are going to be depressed a wee bit.
“So our short-term goal is to get as much market share in that as possible, through a number of innovations.”
His longterm aim is to have Roadmaster recover a lot of the lost share of the transport-related manufacturing that it used to have – this “through being innovative and a little more cost-effective.
“I’m currently meeting with managers as I want this to be a company vision – but we haven’t got to that stage yet.
“Roadmaster has been around for almost 30 years now and we’ve maintained a strong desire to be the best in the market in terms of product quality, performance and returns to the stakeholders. Watch this space.”
Patchell says he appreciates the opportunity to lead Roadmaster, and the support from the Modern Transport Group and is looking forward to working with the Group to grow the company.
T&D