People: YFM; Easy Bathrooms; Pricecheck; and more

Private equity firm YFM Equity Partners (YFM), which has offices in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London, has promoted Mike Clarke to the partnership.

Clarke has 12 years’ experience in corporate finance and joined the Leeds office as investment director in January 2019.

Over the last 18 months, he has been involved in a number of high-profile deals, including the £4.5m Series A investment into Leeds-based data visualisation, reporting and analytics software developer Panintelligence.

As well as representing YFM on the board of Panintelligence, he is responsible for sourcing and transacting the firm’s new investment opportunities across Yorkshire and North East, and has a particular focus on technology investments where the firm has a fast-growing portfolio.

Ian Waterfield, YFM partner and head of new investments in the North, said: “Since joining YFM, Mike has made a valuable contribution to the firm and this is well deserved recognition of his hard work and talent.

“With his strong track record in corporate finance, both in M&A and as an investor, he has the skillset to identify dynamic businesses which need the right funding and strategic insight to realise their potential.”

Clarke added: “It’s great to be part of such an experienced team which shares a passion for supporting management teams.

“Despite the immense challenges that we are all adapting to both at work and home, there are businesses who are innovating through the use of technology to demonstrate their resilience and take new opportunities to pivot their business models.

“It’s exciting to be part of a firm that takes a long-term strategic view and remains very much open for business.”

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Leeds-based bathroom specialist, Easy Bathrooms, has appointed two new senior staff to its contracts team in a move to strengthen the service it offers to the UK’s trade market.

The appointments will support Easy Bathrooms’ contracts team as they target a £2m uplift in direct selling to developers, contractors, tilers and plumbers.

Contracts area managers, Gary Smith and Mike Moore, join with 40 years’ experience in the bathroom industry, having held positions at Porcelanosa, Fired Earth and JP Distribution respectively.

The firm is also recruiting for an additional area sales manager to join the rapidly growing team. The role will cover the breadth of the UK, from Sheffield to Northampton.

Rob Holroyd, contracts manager, said: “The contracts team started out in 2012 with just me in it. In 2019, we appointed a second person.

“Now there are six of us, soon to be seven; demonstrating the speed that our department is growing at.

“Easy Bathrooms is a large company with almost 400 employees, an expanding delivery team and thousands of product lines.

“We recently took on a second warehouse to deal with the level of demand we are experiencing – we now have 165,000 sq ft of storage capacity, with increasing delivery capabilities.

“We are extremely well-placed to deal with contractors of all sizes, from large, national housebuilders, to one-man-band plumbers and everything in between.”

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Growing FMCG wholesaler, Pricecheck, has promoted talent from within as it appoints a new operations director to steer the business through its next phase of growth.

Mark Amos, formally head of operations at the Sheffield-based business, has been promoted to director level in recognition of his hard work and dedication towards the growth of Pricecheck.

Since joining the business in 2001 as warehouse manager, Amos has been instrumental in driving expansion.

This has seen his warehouse team grow from six to more than 170, and storage capacity has increased from 3,000 and 32,000 pallets.

Debbie Harrison, joint managing director (Trading) said: “Mark has been such an important figure in Pricecheck’s growth over the past 19 years and we are really grateful for his knowledge and commitment.

“It’s a very exciting time for Pricecheck and we’re glad that Mark will be joining our team of directors to help steer us forward.”

More recently, Amos’s remit has involved overseeing the logistics and organisation required to efficiently run two South Yorkshire warehouses.

The additional warehouse also saw investment in a state-of-the-art warehouse management system, which he has devoted his time into getting up and running.

Amos added: “It has been a crucial time for Pricecheck as we have played a key part in keeping the supply chain moving and I’m proud to have been able to play my part alongside our very talented and dedicated team.

“As a company, we have so many exciting ideas and projects in the pipeline and I’m hugely proud to be a part of the team of Directors guiding us towards our ambitious targets.”

The international distributor has recently hit its £100m turnover target and is now striving towards achieving £200m by 2025.

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An East Yorkshire poultry supplier has promoted from within to fill a new role that will help support its growing business.

Middleton-on-the-Wolds based Soanes Poultry has promoted Petra Kdr to the new position of continuous improvement officer.

Kdr joined Soanes Poultry in 2012 and has worked in a quality improvement and primary processing roles before her latest move.

She said: “My experience in operations from slaughter to packing will be very useful in this new role as I support the Senior Management team in their bid for continuous quality improvement.”

Soanes Poultry’s MD, Nigel Upson, said: “Petra has been a valued member of the Soanes team for nearly a decade and her well deserved promotion comes as we enter the final phase of a two-year expansion plan that will increase production by 20% and create 15 new jobs.

“Petra will be working on new product development, project management and efficiency studies as we continue to grow our business.”