This story is sponsored by Wolseley.
Ripon brothers Andy and Rich Hudson love working at Wolseley’s distribution centre in Melmerby.
Between them they have clocked up almost 40 years of service at the plumbing and heating merchants, which has its UK headquarters in Ripon and Warwick.
In fact it has been somewhat of a family affair, with their father and aunt also working for the firm until retirement.
Andy said:
“My Auntie Connie was with Wolseley for most of her working life and is still the telephone answer service when you ring head office.”
The company, which has a £1.8bn turnover, employs almost 5,000 staff in the UK, of which 270 are based in Ripon and 150 at the distribution centre in Melmerby.
It is Melmerby, a short ten-minute drive from Ripon, where the two brothers are based.
Twenty years of service
Andy said:
“I’m coming up to 20 years service. I started off as a general picker, packer.
“The advantage of working at Wolseley is there is always the opportunity to work somewhere new within the distribution centre and expand your knowledge base.
“I excelled at what I was doing in one area and then I moved into a different area.
“I’ve been trained on various manual handling equipment, fork trucks and more. There are about six or seven trucks I’m actually trained on. So Wolseley invest heavily in their employees to get the best out of them.”
Safety is key.
Varied work
Andy, who is currently working in the stock team, credits his long service to the variety of work.
He said:
“There are always different areas you can work in and different ways you can advance through the company.
“I’ve done various qualifications with Wolseley. I’ve done an NVQ in warehousing. I’ve also just completed a Wolseley Talent Booster and I’m about to start another course shortly through our Wolseley Talent Guild.
“This is in-house training and they have recently invested in the training suite at Ripon head office. So anybody can be put forward for this training by their manager. I’ve completed the training booster for Team Leader and I’m about to start training for manager level.”
Andy said there is always scope for growth at Wolseley.
Wolseley is currently training more than 130 apprentices across the UK and boosting the skills of more than 150 existing employees.
Andy added:
“All the way through there is training and support from your managers. Everybody wants the best out of you.
“I feel very valued and it’s such a nice atmosphere to work in.
“Every day is different. There are no two days the same.”
How it began
Wolseley started life in a very different form in 1887, moving into the heating space in the 1960s. Wolseley moved into Ripon in 1971 as The Wolseley Hughes Group.
It was based on Boroughbridge Road, where it remains to this day, and was made up of three companies OBC, Yorkshire Heating Supplies and Granville Controls.
In 1985, the company expanded its site and by 1996 was known as Wolseley Centres.
Wolseley is a leading specialist provider of plumbing, heating, cooling, and utility products to trade customers. Trading under a number of leading brands including Wolseley Plumb & Parts, Wolseley Pipe, Wolseley Climate, William Wilson, Jointing Tech, Burdens, and Fusion Utilities. It has over 560 branches nationally, three centres of excellence in the utilities space, support centres in Warwick and Ripon, and four distribution centres.
Rich Hudson has worked for Wolseley for almost 18 years and is currently the warehouse Team Leader at Melmerby.
He said:
“There is plenty of variety and plenty of opportunities to keep you interested.
“There are different machines to learn to operate and different departments you can move into – it never gets stale.
“There are also a lot of learning opportunities. Wolseley is currently putting me through an NVQ qualification in leadership and management. They offer qualifications for any area you want to go into.
“I met my lovely wife, who also worked for Wolseley, so they must be doing something right!”