Huge congratulations to Ernie Coleman who has recently reached a whopping 40 years service. Ernie originally trained as a butcher but found himself in need of work in May 1979 so joined RMC as a temporary worker 40 years ago at Newhaven. We wonder whether he thought he was applying for a butcher’s job but accidentally ended up as a ‘Batcher’!
Adam Leverett, General and Commercial Manager, South Coast, comments: “He remembers everything at the original plant was manually operated and the truck size was 4.6m. Over the years he commented that there have been a lot of changes with fully automated plants and Health and Safety taking huge leaps forward. During his time with the company he has opened Crawley plant, worked at Ditching, Horsham, Eastbourne, Guildford and Leatherhead.
Ernie also secured his City and Guilds qualification in 2009 and is the POTS Trainer for the area. Most new Plant Managers in the area go through the ‘Ernie Training School’ to make sure they are fit for the job!
Family comes first for Ernie (followed very closely by football) and if you visit Brighton plant you will see pictures of his loved ones all around the batch cabin. He has always enjoyed working with the company and hopefully will continue to for the next few years. Brighton plant is Ernie Coleman’s without doubt, and I am sure everyone will join me in congratulating him for this enormous service to the company.
Also, a special mention goes to our Independent Haulage Contractor, Keith Lewis, who is pictured past and present with Ernie in 1979 and 2019. Keith joined RMC 44 years ago at Shoreham plant with a 4.6m Bison truck where he spent eight months. From there he moved to the Newhaven plant until they closed it and then on to Brighton plant where he has been ever since alongside Ernie. He too has enjoyed working for the company over the years, gets on well with all the team and is regularly seen imparting his infinite wisdom on our new drivers!”
In the main picture are Adam Leverett and Supply Chain Team Leader, Mariska Hutt, giving Ernie his thank you card and presents from the team.