We are so proud of our long-serving employees who have reached the 25-year milestone in their careers. At Artex, we have eight employees who have been with us for over 25 years, that’s going all the way back to when “The Macarena” became a movement and Friends debuted. Crazy right?

This month we have been celebrating Danny Bemrose, Glenn Passam, Mark Farren and Barry Blyth who all started working at Artex in 1998! While they all started in the same year, they've all had different career journeys at Artex and it's fair to say that their experience and knowledge is invaluable!

Here at Artex, we strive to create a workplace environment that is safe, comfortable, and conducive to productivity. The accomplishments of our employees are recognized and rewarded, and we are committed to their professional development. It's great to see our own people remain with us for so many years.

Danny joined Artex when he was just 18 on the 13th of July 1998. Danny started working four days a week on our shrink-wrap machine to wrap our decorative coving products. He then progressed on to become a team leader on our cove production line whilst earning himself a Level 4 NVQ in Team Leadership. When we stopped producing cove on site, that didn’t stop him and he moved across to the ceiling rose production line for a few years, then to the plasters production line as a machine operator. Danny has been running our production machines for the last four years and has also taken on the additional responsibility of being the Production stand-in team leader.

His line manager Mercedes Moore says “Danny is a well-liked and central member of the team, he has shown dedication to the role and to the company. Over his 25 years here he has become a key player in the production team and is the area custodian looking after everyone’s safety and also steps up as Team Leader. He is still enthusiastic to learn new skills and expand his knowledge and understanding further. The production area is going through a time a of change in how we operate to meet the demands of our customers and Danny is very much a key figure in ensuring we do all we can and more to meet those demands”.

Danny has elevated his experience and knowledge in the industry by completing a range of different courses including:

• World-class manufacturing.
• IOSH 4-day course.
• IOSH for managers.
• Fork lift truck and scissor lift training.

By dedicating time to his learning and development Danny was also recognised as a safety champion here at Artex and has become one of our EHSQ (Environmental, health, safety and quality) custodians. 

Glenn started working at Artex on July 6, 1998. His initial position was on the cove manufacturing and ceiling rose production line, where he spent five years.  Glenn then moved into distribution where he’s worked for the past 20 years, becoming very versatile in the different duties required.

Mark started working for Artex, then known as Blue Hawk, in March 1998 as an agency worker. His initial role was to support the order-picking process from start to finish. After six months, Mark completed his forklift training and transitioned to a permanent position, taking on more responsibilities in his new role. When Blue Hawk and Artex merged, Mark began his new job as a warehouse operative with the core responsibility of offloading and loading lorries with products. Mark passed his NVQ Level 2 for Warehouse and Distribution being one of the first people to ever do this qualification. Over the past 25 years, Mark has stayed in distribution as a warehouse operative and has become very versatile in the different duties required.

Barry started working at Artex on the 29th June 1998 and his first job was on our stretch wrap machine. He then moved onto shifts on our cove production line for a few years before moving into the warehouse on night picking. In 2003, Barry passed his NVQ Level 2 for Warehouse and Distribution and then moved back into Production as a bagging machine operator. He started training for a technician role in 2007 and passed his NVQ Level 3 in Engineering Maintenance in 2018 to support his current role as an Engineering Technician.

His line manager Terry Wood says “Barry is a colourful character (in more ways than one) who makes me laugh every single day and is an absolute pleasure to work with.

Barry is dedicated, flexible, hard working and is always willing to be involved and he does it with a smile on his face. He is a popular member of the Artex family who everyone gets along with. It’s a pleasure to have him as part of the engineering team and hopefully, he will be around for many years to come.”

Thank you to Danny, Glenn, Mark and Barry for your hard work over the past 25 years to help make Artex the company that it is today! We are proud to have such dedicated and experienced employees, and we look forward to their continued success in the years to come.

If you want to discover a career in construction at Saint-Gobain, then look at the career website here.