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                New MD steers city bike giants

Nottingham cycle group Raleigh has a new man in the saddle.
The american owned company has appointed Phillip Darnton as managing director.
The former main board director of Reckitt & Colman also joins the executive board of the US parent Derby Cycle Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of branded bicycles with sales of more than two million cycles a year.
Mr Darnton said: "I think this is a tremendous opportunity under Derby to build up the best of local and global strengths."
Derby owns several leading cycle brands around the world including Dutch market leader Gazelle and the American BMX & mountain bike brand, Diamondback.
Raleigh had sales last year of just under £50m and is looking to make 520,000 bikes this year.
Mr Darnton will also be responsible for Raleigh in Ireland and the Raleigh and Diamondback brands in Europe.
An Oxford University graduate, Mr Darnton spent most of his career with Unilever. From working in sales and marketing, he went on to run two of their largest subsidiaries, in Canada and Brazil.
At Reckitt & Colman, he was main board executive director from 1996.
Derby chief executive officer Gary Matthews said: "I have great confidence that he will help us to continue the rebuild of the Raleigh business in the UK and Ireland as well as maximising the potential of Raleigh and Diamondback across Europe."
Commenting on the decision to cease bicycle frame production in Nottingham, he said: "Raleigh has set in place a strategy to reduce costs, increase competitiveness and drive share growth in the future."
"Despite tough trading conditions in the UK market, Raleigh shares remain high at around 25%. Second half sales performance continues to see a positive upswing and since July unit volume has been up over 20% on this time in 1998". Raleigh employs more than 500 full-time employees, which peaks at around 650 to cope with second half seasonal demands.

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                                     Text and image from article in Evening Post, written by Richard Tressider