Sweet sendoff for Vauxhall's Denis Chick

Denis Chick has bowed out as director of communications for Vauxhall, taking a high calorie thank you with him from the Midland Group of Motoring Writers.

Among his many interests, which range from gardening and old buses to trains and model cars, Denis has a liking for old fashioned sweets - the sort you'd buy for pennies in your youth.

So that's what he got (along with a decent bottle of red wine), when he said his public farewell to a group of journalists gathered for a tour of the Vauxhall Heritage Collection at Luton.

Denis was tickled by the hamper of sweets, declaring them an ideal in-period prop for his veteran double decker bus. The gifts were handed over to Denis by Midland Group chairman Ian Donaldson, who thanked him for the positive way Vauxhall has supported the Group over many years.

Denis began his career as an apprentice in 1965, starting at Rover and moving through several engineering roles into product planning and marketing before joining the PR team in 1985.

He went on to become director of product communications, Rover Group in 1994 before leaving the business in 2000, 35 years after starting at the company. After a two-year spell at Trafficmaster, Denis joined General Motors in 2002, initially in the role of PR and marketing manager for the then-embryonic GM Daewoo UK.

That role transitioned into a multi-brand remit covering all GM brands sold in the UK. Denis was appointed director, communications for Vauxhall Motors in 2009 and has since overseen launch programmes for several of the company’s most successful models.