4:19pm Friday 25th June 2010
By Richard Garfield
THERE was a great feeling of camaraderie as a special mile stone was celebrated at the Basingstoke headquarters of one of the world’s leading manufacturers of artificial limbs.
Chas A Blatchford & Sons celebrated its 120th anniversary in style with an open day at its factory and offices in Lister Road.
The company, which next month is due to receive its fourth Queen’s Award, employs 450 people – 128 of whom are based in Basingstoke.
An estimated 800 people attended the open day – with many colleagues and their families being bused in from the company’s facili ties around the country – where visitors could learn more about this great Basingstoke success story.
Chief executive officer Stephen Blatchford said: “This year is the 120th anniversary of when my great-grandfather started the company in 1890.
“We wanted to celebrate the occasion by having an open day in the daytime and a party which we held at Lakeside, near Frimley, in the evening.
“The open day was a great opportunity to show the families and friends of everyone who works for us what we do.
“I spent a couple of hours going round the open day and talking to our staff who were demonstrating their work, and I was amazed by how positive and enthusiastic everybody was.
“They all really enjoyed showing off what they do and presented the compa ny in the best possible light to the visitors.”
The evening dinner and dance proved to be a great hit with col leagues, especially as an Abba tribute group provided the musical entertainment.
“The party was for employees and their partners as well as retired staff,”
said Stephen. “We had 570 people attend the evening, all in the same room, which gave a great feeling of camaraderie.”
Reflecting on the special day, Stephen said: “I think it has helped to make everyone very proud of what we do and also helped to raise morale consid erably – we will be thinking of having another one before our 130th anniversary.”
With an annual turnover of about £30m, and with sales and manufactur ing bases in the United States, Russia, France and India, the company sup plies the NHS with artificial limbs to amputees across the country and provides the prosthetics service to injured soldiers for the Ministry of Defence.
Thanks to the advanced technology and innovations used by Blatchford’s, some of these soldiers have been able to return to frontline duty.
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