Greens the signmakers officially turned 60 years old on the 23rd of February 2023 and the business is looking to mark the occasion with a year long celebration! The plan is to do something every month to make it a year to remember as well as ensuring the business is falling in line with our way of working:
“Modern thinking, traditional values”
To kick start the year we took a serious look at how we were rewarding the staff, after all they are the key to any good company. It was decided that while we may be very supportive in a lot of areas, our holiday entitlement was somewhat lacking, so for Januarys announcement we initiated further holidays according to length of service. With spreadsheets drawn up I was staggered by the statistics and the fact we had to add an “over 40 years service” column and ticked that box more than once is amazing. In fact just 10 out of our 54 staff have a combined collective experience of 332 years of working at Greens. It was only right to reward such a loyal team with further holidays to help them achieve that work life balance we are all after.
February’s announcement was a little smaller but nonetheless enjoyable. To help celebrate the company’s birthday we took time out from work and spent an extended lunch all together. With a mountain of food from Dominos and more than enough cake for everyone, it was a great chance to stop and reminisce about life at Greens over the years with quite a few stories coming out that probably shouldn’t be put on here.
It was nice for me to look back at my earliest memories as well, at about 8 years old there would be drawings brought home that had to be coloured in with felt tip pens and in no circumstances could I go out of those lines! It’s a bit different nowadays. We remembered the time my grandad had parked his prized Mercedes at work, only to hear an almighty crash as a lorry managed to bring a massive concrete beam down on top of it, along with a set of huge wooden gates and most of what had been an 18ft high brick wall. I told the story which not many people had heard of my dad, needing a car for that weekends motorsport while his was in the garage, borrowed our accountants company car for the weekend. All was going well until he managed to spin off, ripping most of the front end apart but after spending the Sunday in local scrap yards managed to put it back together and I don’t think the owner ever knew! After hearing all the other stories I think I’ve actually been rather well behaved.
During my speech I commented on a big part of running the family business for me is it providing the opportunity to be able to support a good number of people as well as the local area and the satisfaction I get from that. We are not an insignificant employer in the town and thankfully one that has a good reputation. I regularly meet people who have a story of some friend or relative working here over the years and they are always shared positively and I love to hear them. It’s certainly something I have been trying to continue, from supporting apprenticeship schemes and ensuring there is a place for them once they have passed to absorbing the occasional cost so we don’t have to hire and fire as other businesses in our sector do, which provides staff with the security that they are an important part of the team.
With that in mind I also announced what we will be doing as part of March’s celebration this year. With minimum wage going up at the start of April and the obvious issues with cost of living, we will be passing that hourly rate increase onto all members of staff meaning a substantial pay rise across the board. I hope this will provide security for our staff and show them that we are here to support them as well.
So what does the future of Greens the Signmakers look like? Currently in its third generation, will the fourth want to join? While the elder of the two has already had a massive impact on how we operate by creating #challengegreen to push our environmental credentials forward there won’t be any pressure for them to do so.
The last 5 years since I took over as Managing Director has seen some significant changes to the business which has put us in a far stronger position than ever before and with plans for our continued growth well underway, we hope more people will see why we have earnt such a strong reputation within the signage industry.
Thanks for reading,
LAWRENCE GREEN
European Sign Federation