David Newstead Reaches 50 Years with Wernick

In 1952 the Wernick Group opened a factory in Billericay to support the existing facilities at Waterloo Road in Wolverhampton. According to the ’80 Years of the Wernick Group’ book: “There was no shortage of labour for the Billericay factory. Local schools provided a ready supply of eager young school leavers looking for work.”

That was still the case over ten years later. In August 1967 one of Billericay’s new starters was Dave Newstead, who joined the company straight from school on a wage of 2 shillings an hour; equivalent to 10p in today’s money.

Dave has witnessed some significant changes in the Group’s history up close. When the Group acquired Secometric in 1980 Dave transferred to the new factory at Wickford. Eventually, all manufacturing was moved to South Wales and the Wickford factory closed in the early 90’s. When this happened Dave joined the external erection teams which had been set up to provide continuity of employment for the factory staff. Still based at Wickford, Dave then moved to Wernick Hire, where he now works as a Chargehand.

To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his employment with Wernick a buffet lunch was held in the canteen at Wickford with all staff attending. Dave was presented with a gift from the company by David Wernick, the current Chairman of the Group and grandson of the original founder.

David Wernick told us “As a business Wernick have always valued loyalty very highly. Personally, I see every long service award we present to staff as a great compliment to the Company, and with 50 years of dedicated service Dave has done just that. I hope that he will not be the last person to achieve this incredible milestone.”

 To learn more about careers at Wernick, click here.