Euro Car Parts has promoted 37 year-old Andy Hamilton to the new position of chief operating officer (COO) with immediate effect.

Motorsport enthusiast Hamilton joined Euro Car Parts in October 2010 as operations director with responsibility for the full branch network, the national accounts team, compliance and audit, capital resource and fleet and training and development.

He previously spent 18 years at Halfords, holding many senior management roles including divisional manager.

Euro Car Parts’ chairman and managing director Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia said: “I am delighted to announce Andy Hamilton as our new COO. He has brought many improvements into the business over the last year and this new end-to-end responsibility will deliver the best possible offer to our customers.

“His experience, industry knowledge and skill set will help implement our ambitious growth strategy in 2012 and onwards, myself and the senior management team at Euro Car Parts will continue to work very closely together to achieve our goals.”

Hamilton added: “We have big plans for this year with further rapid branch expansion in the first half, taking us to over 110 branches, including five new branches planned to open in Scotland.

“There are also lots of exciting developments around our e-commerce platform, as well as product development, and programs being launched which will benefit our independent garage customers.”