Colleagues of Tom Richards gave him a fond farewell to mark his retirement from MAN Truck & Bus UK after 27 years of loyal service.
Sixty-five-year-old Tom, from Middlewich, in Cheshire, was delighted to be given a specially-made model as part of his retirement presentation as it perfectly represented his entire career.
The Network Operations Manager has been with the company since 1988 (although prior to 2000 he was an ERF employee). In his time with the company Tom has had various roles, including Warranty Manager and Internal Auditor.
Tom attended his final bi-monthly divisional meeting on his last day during which he was presented with his surprise retirement gift.
He said: “The model is of an MAN Euro 6 tractor unit with a low loader trailer that carried two ERF trucks. It was built by Peter Jones of MAN and a lot of thought has gone into it. One of the ERF trucks was in A & J Nelson livery. I worked quite a bit of my life in Scotland and A & J Nelson is an operator based there. The other model is a BP truck which was synonymous with the ERF brand and represents my time in England.
“I am really chuffed with it; it is a real compliment. I cannot thank everyone enough.”
Andy Turner, Head of UK Network Development, said: “I have known Tom for 26 years and he has reported to me since I took over MTB-UK’s Network Development department in 2011. During that time, I found that he has a wealth of knowledge of the truck industry as a whole, in addition to the Network operations, and he has always readily shared this with me and the rest of the Network team.
“The area of the country he had to cover made great demands on his time away from home, despite this I know he enjoyed his role tremendously.
“Myself, his Network colleagues, MTB-UK and MAN dealer staff wish him all the best for his retirement.”
Tom, who has been married to Zdzisława for 37 years and has three children and three grandchildren, said he now planned to take things easy for a while before going on holiday to Crete and pursuing his hobby of following motor racing, especially Formula One.
