Something we take particular pride in at our company is the fact so many employees choose to stay with us for a good length of time, and recently a new milestone was achieved for another of our long-standing colleagues. We recently celebrated the 30 year anniversary of our Projects Manager John Stainthorpe.

30 years ago, after being made redundant when Wearmouth Colliery closed and having retrained in an IT field, John joined us to help develop our IT systems and introduce a CRM database to the company. Although this database, which was built using MS Access, has been replaced with other systems a couple of times since then, we think John still secretly prefers 'his baby' and still occasionally refers back to it.

As the needs of the business changed over the years John stepped up and took on estimating, costing, and project management including producing our CAD drawings. John continues to be involved in technical sales and even though he will tell you he's not a salesman, he has been responsible for winning and retaining many clients.

When reflecting on his time at Gotts John said "It’s the people that work at the company that make Gott Technical Services what it is."

More recently, John has assumed the role of 'Chief Plant Minder' as he's taken it upon himself to care for a rapidly growing plant in our reception area. It was only small when purchased a few years ago and grew at a moderate rate but since John turned his attention to it earlier this year, re-potting and feeding it, it's growth has accelerated rapidly and it's become a monster! It's like we've got our own Little Shop of Horrors. You can even see in the photo that the plant seems to be caressing the side of John's head!

All of us at Gotts would like to thank John for being such a great colleague and for all his help, his humour, and the use of his air fryer over the years.