ADRIAN Botham (pictured) has been appointed general manager of Multipart's defence contracts division.

Adrian, 33, has worked with the Chorley product support services firm for six years.

Multipart, in partnership with Vickers Defence Systems, recently won the Challenger Innovative Spares Provision (Crisp) contract worth £70million for an initial seven year period to supply tank parts.

And if successful the contract could be extended for the full in-service life of Challenger 2 -- some 25 years.