Chapter 4

Thursday 18 September 1975, 9.05am

Instead of going through the prices with Gina as originally planned, we delayed that until the evening.

So I drove off to see Stan at Rawlings in Gloucester on Thursday morning, but only after checking with my guys back at the works that all deliveries could be made on Friday first thing. I was also informed by Bob Andrews that the production guys had worked all night on the stainless to complete the order and were continuing production to build up some stock ready to resupply on demand. The Sales Manager said that they could sell this as a new addition to our lines and could see several likely applications with existing customers. Bob had been keeping the Despatch Manager abreast of progress and everything would be loaded up tonight and on the road early in the morning to be timed to arrive at Rawlings by 6am on Friday.

Stan was delighted that we could deliver everything as promised early the next morning. So we sat in his office, and we went through all the figures in the quotation and reached final agreement on the deal with a handshake, confirming that the next order through would be in a week’s time and would be for about three months supply to maintain a healthy stock balance.

“Great that we got this sorted out today, Harry. I’m sure that this is the quickest and sweetest supply deal we’ve ever negotiated at Rawlings, so I really appreciate what you’ve done. Steer yourself well clear of here tomorrow and Monday, though,” Stan told me, “all our bad suppliers are picking up their overpriced stock and all the new suppliers are bringing in the new. So far your company are the only ones that have fully filled the orders and production are happy to have weekly deliveries in future and have the flexibility to make adjustments. Now, we need a new receptionist, Harry, we usually only keep them there for a couple of years or so and move them higher up the food chain, so don’t take this as a challenge, but everything else you’ve done for us is first class.” said Stan.

“Hold that thought, Stan, I did have someone special I had earmarked for a company in Watford, but I haven’t said anything to anyone yet. I think she might be willing to look further afield. She’s only 20, she’s very well turned out and she’s worked in London as a cocktail barkeep and managing a team of cocktail waitresses at Tremblett’s group HQ. She’s bright, flexible, wants to enlarge her horizons, but has a feckless boyfriend that needs some serious ‘umph’ behind him to get him going and then keep him running. Apparently the kid she loves enjoys tinkering about with engines and bikes but hasn’t the school certificates necessary to secure an engineering apprenticeship.”

Stan just shook his head that I was able to come up with something so quick, “And they’d move here just like that?”

“Well, I know just the two landladies nearby your factory here who could accommodate them, separately, five nights a week. This girl’s cute, very attractive and committed romantically, but I think that she’d do well working her way up your food chain here as I’m certain she’s smart as a button and already experienced authority in handling staff and dealing with difficult board members.”

“Ha! You think I’m difficult? You should see the others!” Stan laughed. “Well, we are expanding our production lines, Harry, and we’ve shift overseers here who won’t take crap from anyone. That might well suit your girl’s boyfriend if he needs a firm hand. Great opportunities here for progression beyond the assembly lines, too. Set your girl up to visit us and I’ll tee up our Personnel Department to interview them this afternoon if you can get her or both of them here.”

“I’ll do it now.” I picked up a desk phone and dialled nine in front of the number I had written on the back of a card in my pocket. “Mary? ... Oh hello Mandy, it’s Harry, from last night? ... Yes, you’re right, Gina’s a pretty special lady for a toff, in fact she’s a pure sweetheart. Look, can you get Mary to the phone if she’s there? Thanks ... oh hi, Mary, how would you like to work in the beautiful country town of Gloucester? ... in Reception to start with for maybe a couple of years, then there’s training available to work your way up in the back office? ... yes? And they’ve got plenty of work for Darren too, factory assembly work to start with, but this is a first class engineering company, so modern working conditions, good labour relations ... yes, very progressive, this company is always at the leading edge, so his progress is really up to him and how much he wants work ... this afternoon, yes. I can come pick you both up and get you here and back home again safe and sound. No, it’s no trouble, completely at your disposal, in fact, if you like it here and they like you, you could start almost straight away ... They won’t just like you, Mary, they’ll love you, I guarantee it. See you in two hours, then. Bye.”

Harry turned to Stan. “They can be here this afternoon by 2pm, both ready to start on Monday morning if you like the look of them.”

“And the digs you mentioned?” laughed Stan.

“While your people are interviewing them, I’ll sort out their separate digs. They’ll both be safe there and I assure you, with these two ladies they will never oversleep, they’ll get a good night’s sleep Sunday night to Friday mornings and they will be absolutely mothered to death in between!”

“Go on, Harry, go fetch them and I’ll chalk this one up to experience. But one of these days I’ll be finding some way of coming up with a challenge that you can’t meet!”

Mary and Darren were both offered and accepted jobs that afternoon and had been introduced to their sweet landladies and were ready to start their new careers the next week. I took them home that afternoon and happily fixed up with to drive them and their suitcases to Gloucester early on Sunday night.

Our lorry was set to leave at 4am the next day, Friday, and the Rawlings warehouse and stores manager had Bob Arnold’s number in case of any problems and our Despatch in Birmingham even had a spare van and driver on standby in case Rawlings had left anything off their original order. The account was that valuable to us and Rawlings had a great reputation that we were all interested in maintaining and promoting.