G T Bunning and Sons appoints Josh Ward to product support technician

• Josh Ward has been appointed to the role of product support technician for leading manure spreader manufacturer, G T Bunning and Sons

Mr Ward is based at the company’s factory in Gressenhall, Norfolk, and gained his practical knowledge through a John Deere apprenticeship at Ben Burgess in Beeston, Norfolk. He started there when he was 16 years old, and this experience has provided a sound technical base for his current position.

“I completed my four-year apprenticeship to become master technician and worked on all equipment sold by the dealer from tractors to combines, irrigators, potato equipment, manure spreaders and Manitou telehandlers.

“I joined Bunning in 2017 and was recently offered the opportunity to take on the service engineer role for the spreaders.”

Mr Ward’s training in engineering, and familiarity of attending breakdowns and call outs in the field, were key attributes in making him an ideal fit for the role.

“I work with a lot of our end users, talking to them about any issues they may have and diagnosing them over the phone. I’ll talk the customer through steps to fix the issue which can range from a hydraulic fault to assistance with weigh cell, Isobus and variable rate systems. If it can’t be fixed over the phone, I’ll find out the cause of a problem and as much information as possible before sending a technician out,” explains Mr Ward.

Another part of Mr Ward’s role is dealing with warranty claims and supporting dealers to become more knowledgeable on the products so they can fix problems and provide machine updates autonomously.

“One of the best things about working for a tightknit company like Bunning is that problems flagged up by customers are fed straight back into the drawing office and directors, so everyone is aware of what is going on in the field and changes can be made very quickly to rectify issues.

“The best part of my job is meeting different people from the north of Scotland to the south of England and abroad. In the future, I will have the opportunity to travel to some of our export countries to work with our distributors and end users there. Everyone I meet loves the product which makes my job really enjoyable,” concludes Mr Ward.