On Monday 25th July, our current longest serving team member, Alan Osment celebrated 50 years of employment with Hunt’s. Alan’s father Maurice worked for Hunt’s Dairies, and he used to help him on milk rounds before officially starting with us in 1972.
Alan had just left school, aged 15 and started working for Hunt’s Dairies as a drivers mate that summer. Alan then split his time between the transport and warehouse before moving into the warehouse full time. In 1976, Alan and Pat Douch put the first pallets in the newly built store on Ludbourne Road, Sherborne, our now Head Office.
Alan has shared some great stories of when he first started in the early 1970s delivering to Taunton on Route 2 with Brian Francis and we capture the memories and a 50 year low down during a video interview with Alan and Thomas Hunt. The series of interviews with Alan gives us an insight into what times were like for the business 50 years ago, memories of Michael Hunt, what Alan gets up to outside of work and the big revelation of who is Hunt’s greatest ever forklift driver!
To thank Alan for his continued hard work and loyalty, the company presented him with a card, new iPhone, bottle of whisky (one of Alans favourite tipples) and a meal out with wife Jo that, unfortunately for them, Thomas and Richard Hunt have insisted on joining!
Over the last few months we have been collating a list of all employees at Hunt’s to reach 25 years of continuous employment. An exercise that has involved finding Josie Milton’s old red book, numerous conversations with current and retired employees and plenty of searching on the payroll system. On Tuesday 26th July Alan, alongside Mike Douch (Non-Executive Director) and fellow Hunt’s Legend unveiled the board which sits proudly at head office.
We are incredibly fortunate to have 58 legends who have achieved this with the first of them Ron Lamb starting in 1950. Richard Hunt explains “We are proud to have so many hard-working, loyal and brilliant people that have worked for the company over the years and its important they get the recognition they deserve. Putting our team first is incredibly important, it is something Michael Hunt was extremely passionate about and something that Thomas is continuing today”.
The Hunt’s Legends Boards are displayed in the Sherborne and Bridgwater depot receptions and after the busy summer season we plan to have an event to invite The Legends back to the business. We look forward to having a few drinks, a bite to eat, showing them around the sites and how things have changed and of course recalling all the old stories and memories.