DAVID NOTCHES UP FORTY YEARS WITH THE HEART OF ENGLAND CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY

A Hinckley man who joined the Heart of England Co-operative Society as a 16-year-old apprentice TV engineer is celebrating 40 years service with the Society.

David Beasley followed in his mother Freda, father Dennis and grandmother Edith Sneyd’s footsteps when he joined the Co-operative Society in 1970.

The 56-year-old, who works in the Society’s TV services department, in Nuneaton, said he was delighted to have reached such a significant milestone with the Society.

He said: “After leaving school I briefly worked for an electronics firm. But within six months I’d joined the Society. My mother had worked in the food warehouse there and my father was a wages clerk. My grandmother had worked in one of the grocery shops. So I knew a lot about the Society before I actually joined there.”

David said he had enjoyed his four decades with the Society but had seen a lot of changes. He said: “When I joined it was the Hinckley and Barwell Co-operative Society. Since those days it has undergone at least three mergers which have brought a lot of changes with them. I started off as an apprentice TV engineer but these days I am out in the field, installing TVs, rather than repairing them.

“I enjoy the people I work with, I enjoy going out and about meeting people, and I guess that’s why I’ve stayed in the job!”