November 2006 - Clark Equipment establishes a new position of National Retail After Market Manager - Jim Sedgman appointed to the challenge

"The provision of high levels of communication, fast delivery of parts, and rapid turn around times in the after market has become a vital element in delivering customer satisfaction and retention. It is vital that we set ourselves high standards and deliver them on a national basis. Thus, the new position of National Retail After Market Manager."

Announcing the appointment, Robert Hammond Clark Equipment Group MD said, "who better to fill the role than Jim Sedgman who has built up the After Market in Queensland to be our most successful branch on all the measures of customer satisfaction, retention, and communication; fast turn around times, and the winning of new customers. But beyond that, Jim is the advocate of the importance of developing a national Clark standard of excellence in the after market. We also respect that he developed his skills by sacrificing much of his personal time to recently gain a Bachelor of Commerce degree, majoring in management and marketing."

Speaking about his appointment Jim said, "I am excited by the new role. It is something that I have worked towards by developing a good service culture in Queensland as the state After Market Manager."

"The Clark Equipment business has grown to such a point that this is necessary. We need to develop the marketing opportunities to the provision of service and parts on a coordinated national basis."

"I want to set a high standard and make a difference; to ensure we deliver the level of service in the after market that customers expect. Customers are a lot more demanding these days. It is a sign of the times. Everyone is pushed for time, so we have to get response times down. We have to understand just how devastating it can be to our customer's business to have a significant piece of equipment down."

"We haven't achieved all that I would want in Queensland, so I hope to be able to go on developing Queensland to use it as a testing field and trend setter for the development of policies and procedures. A place where we can iron out the bugs before rolling out nationally. Then my role will be to do facilitation, coordination and training on a branch by branch basis."

Jim has spent all his working life in service and parts and all are related to Clark. He began his career as a clerk looking after service and parts for a Clark dealer in Tasmania in 1989. Moving to Brisbane he joined Clark Equipment in April 1993, looking after parts, when the Clark Equipment branch was set up in Queensland.

He progressed to Parts Supervisor in 1995, Parts Manager in 1998, and in 2003 he became the Heavy Equipment Parts Marketing Manager for Omega. In 2005 he became the Queensland After Market Manager looking after service and parts for all products marketed by Clark Equipment.