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Long Service Awards Lunch
On a wonderful sunny day in Cheshire at the end of May eleven colleagues, their partners and guests came together to celebrate a collective 314 years of continuous service in the Timpson business.
As ever, John and Alex Timpson were kind and generous hosts, opening their beautiful Cheshire home, Sandymere, to royally entertain these loyal, long serving colleagues with a sumptuous leisurely lunch.
John spoke warmly of the contribution each had made to the success of the Timpson and Max Spielmann business and Alex was her usual charming and engaging self, taking the time and trouble to speak with everyone and put them at their ease.
Smashing Day
“It was a lovely, really smashing day,” said Sean Smith from Wetherby. “I took my wife, Lesley, along. What made it extra special for us was that it was held at John and Alex’s home. That was a lovely touch. We’re also foster carers and it was great to have a really good chat with Alex about fostering issues.” Sean, who was invited along to celebrate 25 years continuous service was originally with Coombs, then Mister Minit. “The Timpson management is in a totally different class,” he beamed. “I’ve seen a few changes over the years and probably the biggest is in the way Timpson gives you the training and tools to do a first class job.”
Hull manager, Alan Gooch, agreed. “It was an unforgettable experience,” he declared. “The highlight for me was meeting Alex for the first time. After 25 years I’ve obviously met John plenty of times but it was a real pleasure to meet Alex. She was lovely.”
YTS Trainee
Alan started his career at Timpson as a 17 year old YTS trainee on £25 a week. “Clearly, there have been lots of changes since I started. I remember when there were five shoe repairers in my shop and we didn’t stop from the time we got in to the time we went home. The introduction of the extended key board and the computer engraver stand out for me as the most significant changes in my time. That and watch repairs have compensated for the decline in shoe repairs.”
One man who has seen more changes than many in the business is Peter Everton from Truro. Peter celebrated 45 years unbroken service and is another colleague who joined Timpson with the Minit acquisition.
Hard Graft
“I started in the early 1960’s with Allied Shoe Repairs,” Peter recalls. I did a five year apprenticeship, then they were acquired by another business and then by Minit. It as hard graft in those days. I remember of course, stilettos the first time around. In those days they had pins through the stem and you had to pull them out with pliers. We used to get 6d bonus per pair,” he laughed. And then there were the heavy military boots. We had a base at Helston and we had to give them a real proper polish or we’d be for it. These days we don’t see those heavy duty soles any more. It’s all plastic shoes and bonded soles now.”
Peter praised the team who made the Long Service Lunch experience so memorable, Peter said "It was a very special day and everyone made my sister and me fell very welcome. Bill Platt picked us up from the hotel and looked after us really well. He gave us a bit of a guided tour of Cheshire and the lunch was absolutely wonderful."
Max Colleagues
The Long Service Awards were also given out to three Max Speilmann colleagues who between them have racked up more than 75 years in the photo processing business, Sue Percival, from St. Helens, Hayley Swords from Walton Vale and Pauline Swift from Prescot.
“The whole day was lovely,” enthused Pauline, who started as a summer temp 25 years ago. “back in those days we only had about 6-7 shops and the customer had to fill out the docket themselves,” she laughs. “It was lovely of John and Alex to open their home to us and it was great to meet Timpson colleagues from around the country.”
Hayley Swords recalls how when she started out only 6x4 prints were available and took around 7 days to come back, and there was only one album on offer. “I worked with Pauline for about 15 years,” says Hayley, recalling how the biggest change the pair have seen is probably the introduction of mini labs in-store and the advance of digital.
“It was an absolutely wonderful day at Sandymere. Alex and John were so welcoming and to open their home to us and show us around was really lovely. It was certainly a day to remember.
