Watkins fleshes out Ilion management

Ilion has attempted to strengthen its weakened management team with the appointment of Mike Watkins, former vice president of sales for Ingram Micro and sales director for Metrologie.

Watkins joined Ilion as sales director last week, teaming up with long-standing friend Rob Johnson, who joined on 1 January.

Commenting on the move, Watkins said: 'This is an exciting time to be involved with Ilion. It has a brand new management team and a challenging year ahead. There is a lot of work to do and the team seems motivated to take it on.'

Bob Grindley, commercial manager of Metrologie, said he was sad to see Watkins go but added it came as no surprise: 'The reason he left isn't difficult to fathom. Mike and Rob have worked together since their days at Ingram Micro. When Rob joined Ilion, it was in desperate need of quality staff, especially in sales. Mike hadn't been here long and would have been the obvious choice.'

Grindley commented on losing two key staff within three months: 'This is not a problem. Michelle Robins, our ex-financial advisor, has moved into Rob's old position of managing director and has many years' experience with Metrologie. We don't see the need to replace Mike at the moment - he only had three sales managers below him.'

Watkins joined Metrologie after being made redundant by Ingram Micro in 1997. A year-long battle with the distributor for unfair dismissal was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Watkins was employed as a consultant at Metrologie before he moved into the sales director role.

Peter Rigby, marketing director of parent company CHS Electronics, said: 'Mike is not a big loss. His job was never seen as a long-term role. Mike's main challenge will be to restore stability and confidence in the sales force if Ilion wants to get back on track.'