Tom Farmer

Sir Tom Farmer CBE is Founder and Former Chairman of Kwik-Fit Holdings plc, the household-name automotive repair chain.He founded the Kwik-Fit Group in 1971. The company now operates through 866 centres in the UK, Eire and throughout Benelux and employs 4,000 people. In 1997 the company achieved a turnover of £. 426m, and a profit of £. 43m, an improvement of 19% over the previous year. In 1999 Sir Tom sold Kwik-Fit to Ford Motor Company for nearly one billion dollars.

The success of Kwik-Fit is based entirely on the commitment of the whole company to customer service and quality. Tom Farmer is also well known for putting his 'people' even before his customers. If the customer is king, he likes to say, the staff are emperors. He is a passionate and inspiring speaker on topics such as leadership, motivation and teamwork and how employees can be motivated to deliver not just customer satisfaction but customer delight.

Tom Farmer is owner of Hibernian Football Club, Chairman of Scottish Business in the Community, Chairman of Investors in People Scotland and Board Member of Investors in People UK.

Appointments:
Chairman of Scottish Business in the Community
Chairman Scotland Against Drugs Campaign
Non-Executive Director - Airtours PLC

Honours and Awards:
1998 The Institute of Management Gold Medal.
1996 Degree of Doctor honoris causa, University of Edinburgh.
1996 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Technology, Glasgow Claedonian University
1996 Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau of The Netherlands (From Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands).
1993 Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration, Napier University, Edinburgh.
1993 The Knight Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (From the President of Poland).
1990 Scottish Marketing Man of the Year.
1989 Scottish Businessman of the Year.