BUSINESS boss Richard Abell has taken up a new career – and the first thing he did was get his hands dirty.

The 47-year-old has become the first group commercial director of Northallerton based waste management and recycling company Yorwaste.

And within days of starting he spent an eight-hour shift working with the bin collection crews to get an idea of the business works on the ground.

“The waste industry is entirely new to me so before I got to grips with my day job I thought it was important to see first-hand what remains a very important part of the Yorwaste business,” he said.

“I was left very impressed with the quality and motivation of the crew I worked with and they had lots of ideas about how the business could be improved, which is fantastic.”

The father-of-two was previously in the construction industry, latterly with his own consultancy.

His new brief is to develop and implement a strategy to grow Yorwaste’s revenue and profit, including developing new opportunities with existing customers and targeting new business and revenue streams.

Managing director Steve Grieve said: “He brings a new perspective to the company and we look forward to utilising his considerable commercial experience to hopefully grow the business further in the coming years.”