Gardman has appointed Matthew Payne as its new operations director.
Mr Payne has considerable and varied experience which has been gained from a number of blue chip organisations including Boots and XMA (Westcoast Orion). Most recently, he was European head of distribution at Scotts Miracle-Gro, where his role saw him accountable for six warehouses and 11 transport operations across Europe.

The knowledge base that Mr Payne possesses will be critical in his role at Gardman as he focuses on defining the future strategy of the operations function whilst maintaining focus on delivering the much improved service achieved this year and overseeing the operation at Kings Lynn, which Karen Fraser, logistics director, will continue to oversee and manage day to day.

Gardman CEO Pete Utting said: "I am thrilled to welcome somebody of Matt`s calibre to Gardman to spearhead our Operations strategy and execution at this very exciting time. It is a further demonstration of our commitment to build on our service improvements this year."

Mr Payne said: "I am delighted to join Gardman at such a key time in its development, and I am looking forward to working with Pete and the team to deliver a market leading service proposition to support the company's growth plans."