Episode 18 with Robin Lennie, retiring MD of Stihl GB

After a career spanning 30 years at Stihl GB, the last 14 years as managing director, Robin Lennie retires on 31 December.

In the penultimate Inside Agri-Turf episode of 2020, he talks openly and frankly to Chris Biddle about the chemistry between himself and Peter Baker, the MD when he joined the company in 1990 as Finance Director, who needed 'fag-packet' projections rather than complicated financial modelling.

He also talks about the challenges of developing friendships amongst dealers within a commercial relationship, particularly when trading terms had to be changed.

For all its size, Stihl is a modest company he says which is why German executives liked to welcome dealer and press trips to the Stihl plants to provide them with a 'look behind the curtain'.

This was not the farewell to staff and dealers that he had planned - COVID restrictions meant the cancellation of a final 'tour' - but there is obvious pride and satisfaction in overseeing a massive increase in sales during his tenure at Stihl from £17 million in 1990 to over £120 million in 2020.