Following more than half a century in the industry, with almost 20 years of which as Merridale’s Sales Director, Stephen Hannan has decided to step away from his full-time position as he looks towards retirement.
Having been introduced to the world of fuel pumps back in 1971 when he spent his summers working at Murphys’ and Heron Service Stations serving people their fuel, as was common practice at the time, he started what he calls his “first proper job” at Pump Maintenance Ltd in 1973.
Working for Merridale has been a great pleasure, especially over the last few years. Here we have a business focused on delivering high standards for our customers which is what I have always striven to achieve.
Over the next 25 years, he remained in place in sorts as Pump Maintenance Ltd, or PM Services as it was later known, merged into Avery Berkel Forcourt Services in 1995 and was then transferred to Gilbarco in 1999, later known as Marconi and Gilbarco Veeder Root.
Stephen said “During this period I progressed through several roles from Office Manager to Sales Manager, before finally ending up as National Commercial Sales Manager for Gilbarco. Here I was based in their Witton office together with Kathy Withers as Commercial Contracts Manager.”
After building the commercial division to well over £2.5 million turnover in 2003, Gilbarco was sold to the Danaher Group by 2006. As a result of Danaher’s lack of interest in the commercial marketplace, both Kathy and Stephen joined MIS Fuel Monitoring, now Merridale Ltd, the same year as Contracts Manager and Sales Director respectively.
“Working for Merridale has been a great pleasure, especially over the last few years. Here we have a business focused on delivering high standards for our customers which is what I have always striven to achieve. After avoiding scheduled retirement back in 2020 and with Kathy taking retirement in Autumn 2022, I now have reduced my role to an on-demand consultant to the business where I am happy to assist Merridale in continuing to maintain their high standards and financial security. I am also happy that the Sales team, now led by Paul Russell as National Sales Manager, will continue to the same high levels that I have always endeavored to achieve.”
Having worked with Stephen since joining the company in 2016, Paul Russell said “Stephen has shaped and developed a fantastic sales department at Merridale, one that I am proud to be part of and now have the opportunity of managing. I was new to the industry when I started with Merridale so I owe a lot to Stephen and Kathy for guiding me through my early fuel management career. I don’t think I ever came across a piece of equipment on any of the site visits that Stephen or Kathy couldn’t identify or tell me about, and to have that kind of support has been invaluable.”
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