Team GB crowned Volvo’s masters of the (parts & service) universe

Testing the knowledge and competence of parts and service personnel worldwide, the team from Volvo Constructioon Equipment’s Warrington, north-west England, customer support centre has won the final round of the Volvo Global Masters competition.

The team represented 3573 Volvo CE’s GB dealership in the contest that tests parts and service personnel on their skills and knowledge of the company’s products.

Over the course of national, regional and global rounds the original 3,000 participants from dealers in four regions were whittled down over eight months to just one group of Masters. This year’s final, held at Volvo CE’s Training Centre in Eskilstuna, Sweden, featured eight teams coming from Indonesia, India, China, Brazil, Holland, the USA and Great Britain.

The aim of the long-running competition is to increase the interest, knowledge and skills among Volvo CE’s service and parts technicians worldwide, and competing teams were judged on their technical and parts systems knowledge, proper handling of tools, and demonstration of Volvo’s core values in action.

In third place came team Kuiken from the Netherlands, second place was Team Rudd Equipment from the USA and the title of Volvo Masters 2014 went to Volvo CE GB, represented by Billy Heywood, Matthew Needham and Chris Walker, with Mark Armsworth in support as team coach.

“Each team had already proven themselves to be worthy champions, having won through a series of local, national, sub-regional and regional finals since the competition began in May 2013,” says Pål Torgersen, director of global competence development at Volvo CE.

“As expected it was a close race to become the Volvo Masters of 2014. Out of initially about 3,000 participants in the first round, 24 parts and service technicians had qualified for the global final and all merit recognition. My particular congratulations go to our deserving winners from Great Britain.”

Willie Watson, the Warrington support centre manager, says: “We are immensely proud of our lads bringing this high accolade for the first time to Great Britain and more specifically to the Warrington support centre. Winning this trophy has given everyone here a sense of pride in their achievement.”