100 Years' Service Honoured By Cambrian Printers

Cambrian Printers have said farewell to two members of its team after they have achieved almost 100 years of service between them.

Pat Davies, the company's bindery assistant, has just retired following 40 years of service, whilst digital press operator, John Roberts, will retire at the end of the month having worked for 50 years for the company.

Davies joined the art bindery department in 1961 where she manually sewed various journals together on large frames to produce volumes.

She commented: "Things were very different when I started with Cambrian.

Machinery depended upon people more, we stitched and trimmed by hand so books took much longer to produce." In 1969, she left Cambrian to start her family but six years later, the then operations manager of Cambrian asked if she'd be interested in a part time cleaner's position.

The move saw her return to work for the next 33 years.

She added: "I've really enjoyed working for Cambrian Printers.

Whilst the company has grown over the years and the type of work and machinery required to do the work has changed a great deal, one constant has been the friendliness of working for a family-run business.

I should have retired this time last year but I asked if I could stay on and work for a while longer." John Roberts said: "I've held several roles within the company having started my career in 1957 as an apprentice bookbinder when the printers were based in Mill Street, Aberystwyth.

I was in the dark for 15 years of my life when I worked as a camera operator in the pre-press department, as I spent several hours a day in the dark room." He progressed o be involved in other pre-press work, creating plates for production and then moved on six years ago to his current position as digital press operator.

Roberts added: "I've been fortunate at Cambrian to have held different jobs within the same company.

The changes in printing technology means that we've had to adapt to meet the growing needs of the customer.

We're able to turn things around so quickly on the digital printer now, what used to take three to four days to lay down 50 years ago can now be done in 10 minutes." Robert Read, Cambrian Printers' chairman and managing director, commented: "We're justifiably proud of our staff retention rates.

It's not often you hear of people having stayed with the same company for all of their working life, although we have a few here who will have clocked up similar length of service for the company.

Pat and John have been strong members of the Cambrian family, I'll be sorry to see them leave but wish them well in their retirement.".

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