Gordon Lamb staff celebrate 1,059 years of service.

April 8, 2010 - PRLog -- Each of the fifty-two staff has worked for the Company for more than ten years, whilst some can boast more than forty years of continuous service. Gordon Lamb has been one of the East Midlands's major employers since 1953 and since then, many hundreds of local people have worked for the company.

It has long been a tradition to recognise the staff's loyalty with a 'long service' award and all the staff who had reached ten, twenty, thirty or forty years service were presented with a gift. Pride of place went to long term employee, Malcolm Catherall who has worked as a technician for the Company since 1962 and has served a full forty-seven years of full-time employment. He currently works for one of the Company's Toyota Centres and has been kept busy with the recent recall.

Chairman, Richard Lamb says: "I take great pride in our work force and I am delighted to be able to pay tribute to a special group of employees who have served our company for many years and contributed to our many great accomplishments. This occasion is also an important reminder of the dedication and commitment required to achieve progress. It serves as an inspiration to all of us, who strive towards making Gordon Lamb the best it can be."

The Company has a long history and many of the staff have seen the car change from the preserve of a wealthy few into an everyday from of transport for the masses. Before the company's establishment, the company's founder, Gordon Lamb, worked as a car salesman for Kennings in Chesterfield and also worked in meat delivery and distribution. By the end of the war he had acquired three lorries of his own and went on to trade cars.  He bought his first car, a Ford 8, for just £12 10s and sold it a few days later for £15. This event marked the beginning of a business which was set to become a household name in the area. In June 1953 Gordon officially established the company on a site that cost just £400 and was the first person to start a Volkswagen retail dealership in the UK. He started with a stock of just three Volkswagen Beetles.  The business began to grow and in 1959, Gordon became the first UK distributor for the Swedish car marque, Saab and sold 100 cars in his first year.

Today, the Gordon Lamb Group is proud to continue the tradition of being a family run business and is headed by the third generation of the Lamb family; Stephen Lamb. Stephen took over as CEO from his father, Richard Lamb, in 2005. Richard was responsible for the rapid growth of the business throughout the eighties and nineties and still takes an active role today, as Chairman, with a total of forty-two years of service to the local community. Now, semi-retired, Richard also gets actively involved with local charity work. Meanwhile, Stephen is keen to make further progress with the business: "After a period of rationalisation, I am keen to build on the success of previous generations of family and staff and I am looking closely at further opportunities for local employment and growth".
At present, Gordon Lamb operate seven new car franchises and an additional nine service centres across Chesterfield and Sheffield, as well as a Budget car rental franchise and a local property company. The business employs over 220 local people and sell in excess of 6000 cars and vans a year in addition to servicing over 30,000 vehicles.
More info at: http://www.gordonlamb.co.uk

# # #

Gordon Lamb Limited are a multi-franchise automotive retail group and represent Land Rover, Honda, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Skoda. They are based in the East Midlands and were first established in 1953.