This year FB Chain celebrates 30 years of business in the UK. To mark this impressive milestone, the company has held its first long service awards for seven staff – all local residents – who have a combined length of service of 132 years.
An award ceremony was held at a venue in nearby Baldock, and was attended by the whole FB Chain team. Managing director of FB Chain Peter Church made a short speech about each award winner before presenting them with their pin. The pins are a bespoke design for FB Chain and made to resemble a real life chain link.
Jimmy Lamond, Martin Walker, Karen Barton and Martin Green each received a gold chain link pin for their 20+ years of service. And Graham Barber, Amanda Ward and Shad Allen each received a silver chain link pin for being with the company for over a decade.
Finance manager Karen Barton, who’s worked at FB Chain for 21 years, says: “It’s an honor to receive this award in recognition of my dedication and hard work for the company over my service period. It’s a true sign that our efforts over the years are not taken for granted. I will wear my gold pin with pride!”
“Like many companies, we have seen people come and go but we have a core of staff who have given consistently excellent service over a long period of time,” says Church, who has himself worked at the company for 16 years. “New staff have brought new skills and energy to our team in recent years, but our long-serving staff have played a vital role in the success of the business.”
Nowadays, it is common practice for people to be more mobile when it comes to work. This can make building staff loyalty a challenge for many businesses, as Church goes on to explain. “When I was young, all my friends’ parents worked in Letchworth Garden City – and almost all of them for just four companies,” he says. “My father worked for the same company for 40 years before he retired. That’s very different now, as there is greater potential to change jobs regularly.”
Church concludes: “Our promise to deliver the best possible service and advice for our customers requires knowledge, experience and energy – and our long-serving staff enable us to keep this promise. We are very grateful for their commitment and support!”
