STAFF MOVEMENTS AT ALPINE

There has been some movement at the station in Alpine management.

Ben Habershon is returning to Alpine Alstonville to take up the new position of Production Manager. Ben has been managing the Alpine business, Impact Grasses since that business was acquired in 2008 and he has done an excellent job in lifting quality standards and expanding the Impact facilities to cope with the growth in this business. He has also done very well to integrate Impact Grasses into the Alpine business.

Ben's new role as Production Manager Alstonville recognises the continuing expansion of the business at Alstonville, measured by the scale of its production, number of staff and continuing emphasis on direct sales from the nursery to its own customer base. Alstonville is clearly the largest producer of stock for Alpine and this trend will continue as new production facilities are developed. As Alstonville Manager Bruce Wilson put it " I will be very pleased to have Ben back at Alstonville. He knows the expectation here and Ben and I have developed a close working relationship that makes us interchangeable as far as the day to day production decisions are concerned."

Lee Littlechild put her hand up when she heard that Ben was moving back to Alstonville. Despite a large snake being part of the greeting party in her reconnaisance visit to Impact Grasses Lee and husband Ron are looking forward to moving back to Lee's state of origin in Queensland. This is great news for Impact Grasses as it will really strengthen the sales resources at Impact as well as further cementing the connection between Impact and Alpine Dural.

Greg Knox has been appointed as Sales Manager in Dural. Greg joined Alpine in 2002 and has worked in Production, Order picking, Business Development and most recently looking after several large customers in the Sales Division.

Greg will bring his high energy levels and natural people skills to the position. He will continue to look after the majority of his existing customers. This will be a test of Greg's time management skills but he will be very well supported by the existing team members in Sales and he will do an excellent job. Congratulations Greg.    

Moving staff between locations is great for several reasons. It provides another challenge in the work career of talented people, it enables the Alpine culture to more easily permeate across borders and it makes inter group communication so much easier.

The above changes will take place early in 2010.