Leaving School...........

I didn’t have a clue what I would like to do after school. I sort of liked school but I was ready to leave. College didn’t excite me one bit.

The only one idea I had was to gain an apprentiship like my Dad had done. In 1987 this was not an easy thing to achieve, there was a decline in the amount of apprenticeships but it was still a logical choice for many.

I would go to the likes of ICI and British Steel, where there must have been 5,000 other kids going for the same 20 apprenticeships. The first selection process took about 2 weeks to examine everyone.

Week after week we would apply and be examined, running into the same kids all the time. I don’t think I got very far and the situation was looking desperate

When summer approached I had nothing sorted but an opportunity came up working for David Manners of Manners & Harrison for a few weeks. Luck had turned, I loved the job and in some ways if I hadn’t been offered a place at the EITB in Billingham I would have stayed.

It took the pressure off getting into the EITB as most people who attended for one year found an apprenticeship. It wasn’t easy though and competitive. When job opportunities and interviews came up it was a case of competing with your friends. I think we where paid £ 30 / week. It was a fortune

A job came up in Hartlepool at Stadium Plastics. Four of us went for the job and I was the only one from Hartlepool. My Doctor was a good friend of our family and knew one of the main directors of Stadium very well. I got the job….

I enjoyed being an apprentice and learned loads of different disciplines such as electrical, pneumatics, hydraulics and toolmaking. I still use them today, and have been essential at different parts of my career.

After being at Stadium for a year I was introduced by my Mam to a lady that wholesaled watches. I pestered Mam for ages to get me some and then one Friday evening I got my chance.

I bought 100 cheap watches for £ 55.00 and then some better ones with ticking golf balls and things on them. In total it came to £ 107.00 of Mams money! Dad thought we where both mad and said we would not sell them. I sold them all by the Saturday night

A new part time business was formed and am still remembered for it now on occasions. For the next 5 years, from the beginning of August till the 24th December I was selling watches, Xmas wrapping paper, socks, ornaments, pearls, shirts, torches and a whole host of other things.

Stadium was my hot bed as many women worked on the line. I think there must have been 250 or more worked there. I’d cast my net on the Plastics side but then grew with a good contact into the Electronics side (I won’t name you Liz!) I’d adapted my tool trolley in to a ‘lean, mean, selling machine’ and would drop the samples down under Liz’s desk at 6.00am.

Liz would then take orders, which I’d collect in the day. It was crazy, one day I took in a Xmas soft toy I’d seen, its was good for the money. Liz got orders for about 250 in twenty minutes. She’d do the same with watches, all of the stuff really and I’d say we did about £ 500 / week

Due to the success I went to the hospitals and caught the nurses at visiting times (you could just walk in then) I had people in Fisher Price at Peterlee and loads of others. I’d stop anywhere to get a sale, I wouldn’t dare now…

Dad always had a saying ‘spend a bit, save a bit and waste a bit’ I took this advice but tended to save more. It allowed me to buy and sell a few cars as I had the cash but I soon lost interest. I’d been to the car auctions that many times as a boy with my Dad’s business. I was burnt out by 8 years old!

So I bought houses with my Dad. Nights and weekends where spent clearing and fitting them out ready to be rented. It went well, Dad got all the hassle and I got half the money!

We started to sell the houses in 2004 as prices started to rise, then peak. By this point we’d wrote down the tax liability to 60%, 10 years of ownership. The profits helped me get on the housing ladder at a difficult time in 2006.

Stadium Plastics is and was huge miss to me personally, as I had some great friends there. The people where excellent and hard working. It was also a place of opportunity; you just had to take it.

Stadium is a massive loss to Hartlepool and should still be with us. Some people made some poor decisions and it was sold to a couple of very smooth operators who basically cleaned it out.

I do believe this situation is being investigated by the DTI and hopefully they will get what they deserve.

From apprentice I became time served, gained some experience and the moved into the Commercial side which was really lucky, and out of the blue. I wasn’t great at what I did maintenance wise to be honest and I didn’t really like it either. I must note the guys where great…Jimmy, Steve, Graham, Mally, Alan, Barny, Windy, Rab C, George, Lol, Col and Stan – sorry if I missed anyone

One job, five applicants and two of us got the job. We both had totally different skills but ticked all the boxes. Richard Peacock (the other one) is a great mate and has helped me loads.

It’s quite funny though in a way as I’d get the long hours, crappy jobs, on call all the time and Rich would get the company Xmas card to design! Every one would be amazed and he would be celebrated as the new kid on the block.

Rich was a bloody good artist and I got some of the cards framed and are by my desk. Of course I hide them if Rich is coming to visit! Rich is cracking guy and just been on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, with his DOG! Sorry Rich

I worked through all the departments at Stadium and had much to do with winning new business which would secure its future for 5 years.

I left Stadium at the end of 1999 and went to work for Rich at Omega Plastics, Gateshead! I never actually left in some ways as Stadium would now become a customer of mine and three years later I would be a supplier to them!