Mike Ward has been appointed as managing director of Metsä Wood UK and succeeds Mike Lomas.

Mr Ward is responsible for Metsä Wood’s businesses in the UK, including the sales of all product categories as well as the management of the UK-based production units. He will report directly to Henrik Söderström SVP, sales.

With a wealth of management experience having previously worked for JELD-WEN UK as its managing director for the last 10 years, Mr Ward will work closely with Mr Söderström on increasing Metsä Wood UK’s customer orientation.

Mr Ward said: “I am excited to be joining Metsä Wood to build on the strong legacy that the Metsä management team have created under Mike’s Lomas’ leadership. Through my experience I believe I can bring further value to Metsä Wood UK and drive sales growth in our business. With the country’s homebuilding sector continuing to grow, this is an exciting time for Metsä Wood.”

This change forms part of Metsä Wood’s renewed structure, which was announced in May, moving to a customer driven process-based management model where the structure based on business lines was dismantled.

Mr Söderström said: “We welcome Mike to Metsä Wood to lead our UK business into its next phase of development. The UK is one of our main market areas and acting as one, united, Metsä Wood will strengthen further our ability to serve our customers in the local distribution, construction and industrial sectors.”