59th Dinner on 17th May 2019

The 59th PLSC Annual Dinner was held on 17th May 2019 in the Holiday Inn West Hotel, Peterborough with 117 guests and members attending. 

Stuart Morgan was the Master of Ceremonies and wished all an enjoyable evening together, meeting former colleagues and old friends.

Stuart welcomed the Club’s Patron David Goldspink, General Manager – IPSD Medium Engines, responsible for the manufacturing and engineering for Medium Engines globally, and company guests,  Paul Thompson, Rob Walker, Chris Blin, Annette Ward and Richard Harry and representatives from the Team Gold Award Projects who were to be introduced later.

Before Grace, Stuart advised that the Club was raising money for the Company’s Charity Partners Anna’s Hope and Cancer Research UK. Raffle tickets would be sold during the evening and all money raised would be matched by the company, so he encouraged everyone to be generous.

Footnote: a superb sum of £636.50 was raised, making a total of £1273 for the Charities. Thanks to all for their generous support.  

During the meal a rolling slide show of the Club’s activities of the previous year was shown which was of interest to the members present.

During dessert before the Loyal Toast, Stuart called upon a surprise speaker, namely Club member Brian Pearce, who had been recently awarded a MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List last year. Brian gave a vivid description, as only he can deliver, of the Queen's Award  for Volunteering celebrations and the Honours Ceremony at Buckingham Palace and showed photos of him receiving the award.

Stuart then called upon the Club’s President, Adrian Talbot, to give his address.

Adrian welcomed everyone to the evening’s dinner and thanked David, as Club Patron, for the support he provides to the Club.

For Adrian, it had been an interesting year and he personally thanked the committee for their continued dedication and hard work ensuring the Club continued to thrive and deliver on the requirements of the membership. He also thanked Stuart Morgan, who had accepted the invitation to be MC for the evening.

During his first year of office, Adrian had taken the opportunity to voice his concern over the falling Club membership with the Club’s Patron, currently standing at 465 members compared to 484 last year.

In their discussions they had talked of potential ways of increasing membership in the future, recognising in today’s business world it is far more difficult to attract and keep long serving employees. Taking the subject further, Adrian had discussed the challenge with the Committee and at this year’s AGM put a motion to the Club’s membership to reduce the qualifying non-continuous service requirement from 25 to 20 years. It was passed unanimously. It also included those Caterpillar employees who had attained the same service period and had worked at Peterborough during their career. He very much hoped this would have the desired effect and advised that a Club brochure would be developed and published to promote the Club, its membership and activities, highlighting too the new membership requirements.

In closing he thanked everyone for coming and wished all an enjoyable evening. Next year will be the Club’s 60th Anniversary year – its Diamond Jubilee – and working with the Company it's hoped to do something a little different or special to commemorate this important milestone.

Adrian asked all to stand for the toast to The Company and Guests after which Stuart invited David Goldspink to give his response on behalf of the Company.

David opened his address by saying how it was a great personal honour for him to continue to be the Company Patron of this esteemed Club. He thanked Adrian and the committee for all of their achievements since the last Annual Dinner.

He continued by reporting that since the last annual dinner much had changed from a Company perspective, such as having a new Group President, Billy Ainsworth, covering Energy and Transportation, the Caterpillar division that Industrial Power Systems Division (IPSD) reports into.

For Peterborough, the new 3.6 litre engine had entered production this year, and the new 400 Series facility had been completed, truly exciting times. Customer orders were strong and it was great to continue to be so busy. They had a fantastic Bauma Show in Munich in April with many new and existing customers hugely interested in the Company's mechanical, electric and hydraulic hybrid solutions.

David touched on the Pension fund and was pleased to report that it was in a strong position as a result of a very successful investment strategy.

He thanked everyone for their kind attention and finished his interesting, professionally delivered address as he began, by thanking everyone for keeping the Club in such vibrant shape and for their work in promoting Perkins and Caterpillar and all they stand for in the wider community. 

The formal part of the evening moved on to the Presentations, the first of which was the Team Gold Award, presented to a Team in recognition of their support and enhancement of the Industrial Power Systems Division business at Peterborough and associated facilities, through growing the people, products and reputation of the business whilst demonstrating Teamwork, personal Commitment, Excellence and Sustainability. 

This year as usual the submissions were all of high quality and reflected a wide variety of project activity.

Representatives of the top four projects had been invited to the evening’s dinner, and the results were given in reverse order.

In third equal place was the Customer Machine Engine Integration Team.

Many third party engine customers have limited ability and resources to engineer new engines into machines, so the decision was taken to use the skills within the Company’s own Machine Installation department to offer a service of engine integration to external customers. This business solution removes a key barrier to entry for powering machines with Perkins engines.

This solution is unique to Perkins in the market place and has been identified as a key value differentiator by our OEMs.  The primary aim of the solution is to drive new and incremental business and in this regard the team has been highly successful. Customers have been so satisfied with their first installation that they have made further requests for more projects where our engines are displacing competitor products.

The team has displayed high levels of Teamwork, Commitment and Excellence to merit third equal place.

Mark Tegerdine and Tony Beckett from the Customer Machine Engine Integration Team were asked to come forward to receive their certificate from David Goldspink. 

Also, in Third Equal place was Project Jigsaw Phase II.

This project involved relocating the 400 Series production into the space vacated in Factory 1. In the process an entirely new hot test facility for 16 test beds was installed and production rates maintained across 3 shifts with no impact on operational performance.

Excellent Teamwork and Commitment enabled the team, led by Cliff Gillis, to overcome many unforeseen obstacles including underground cavities! Improvements in work flow, quality, efficiency, safety and operator comfort have been delivered in this major project which is a credit to the whole team.

Cliff Gillis and Paul McCarthy from Project Jigsaw came forward to receive their certificate from David Goldspink.

Runner Up in the 2019 Team Gold Award competition was Growth through KBO Conquest Business Team

Perkins has been focused on winning new compact tractor business and now, the teamwork and perseverance has paid off.

The Club was not in a position to disclose who the business is with, as the project is yet to be made public by the original equipment manufacturer in question, but it is a leading company. The Teamwork needed across many departments to win this business was impressive. The Commitment to deliver the programme in a significantly shorter timescale than normal and the Excellence of the whole package of product plus support that was developed, were a great example of the dedication needed to win third party business.

Dave Robinson, Stuart Badcock and Jack Burt from the Growth Through KBO Conquest Team stepped forward to receive their runners up certificate from David Goldspink.

The Winning Project Team for this year’s Team Gold Award was responsible for winning the engine business for the Caterpillar Next Generation of Mini Hydraulic Excavators with the 1.1 Litre engine.

The Next Generation machine is a new, in-house mini Hydraulic Excavator designed and manufactured by the Caterpillar Building and Construction Products (BCP) Division. 

The programme was taken from Request to Start of Production in 18 months with all project engines being delivered on time throughout the programme.  

To make this project a success, superior Teamwork was required across three continents and the Commitment of team members and focus on Excellence throughout were outstanding.

The team held weekly reviews on multiple project streams, with the frequency of sessions dynamically increasing in response to challenges. A sense of accountability prevailed, with the team agreeing task ownership rather than being assigned it.

The project has been an exceptional demonstration of cross-functional global collaboration to support an enterprise partner in meeting their product, time, cost and quality objectives.

Phil Brussee and Gemma Harding representing the Next Generation – 1.1 Litre Team were asked to come forward to receive the trophy and their certificate from David Goldspink.

Phil gave a short acceptance speech on behalf of the team, thanking the Long Service Club evaluating committee for recognising the team’s work in this way. 

After the awards, Stuart summarised by saying all the projects submitted were excellent, and that although there could only be one winner, the other projects have all delivered great results and displayed the Company Values in doing so. The teams should be proud of their achievements. 

Honorary Life Membership is bestowed to members on reaching their 80th birthday, in recognition of their services to the Club and the Company or in special circumstances.  Ray Dennis, Neville Hutchins, Jim Sanderson, Keith Smith and David Towell were present and came forward to receive their Certificate from David Goldspink.

Keith wished to say a few words and in doing so personally expressed his gratitude to Perkins, for him and his family, for years of fulfilling employment and lifelong prosperity. 

Names of the other qualifying members, who were not at the dinner and would receive their certificates by post, are:

Brian Ayres, D I Baxter, A A Browne, Herbert Broughton, C T Freeman, Bob Foster, A Hounsham, John Jeffery, Peter Juggins, Howard Lewis, Dennis Read, Dave Speechley, B J Ward, Peter West.

The Quarter Centurion Award is presented to the member who has made an outstanding and special contribution to the Club, the Company or the Community, locally or nationally. The Executive Committee considers all nominations from the membership before deciding upon the winner.

Stuart went on to say this year’s winner has made great contributions to both the Company and the Community. Stuart read out a citation, reproduced below.

Citation:

He will know who he is when I say I worked for him for many years in Sales. You will know who he is when I say, last year he stood where I am standing now as our Master of Ceremonies - Allan Arnott.

On the Company side, Allan joined Perkins in the late eighties, and was to become Director and General Manager of Perkins Power Sales and Service. He was immediately confronted with a world recession and led his sales team through it with leadership and calm determination - by stressing the importance of service levels, technical support and customer satisfaction. He encouraged collaboration between all departments to successfully see off that recession by increasing our Company’s sales figures. He became Managing Director of Perkins International Limited, representing his Company wherever and whenever required. A memorable highlight was the visit of the then Prime Minister John Major, in February 1994. 

Allan moved to being Director and General Manager of Electric Power and then Operations Director before retiring. During the former appointment In Electric Power he honoured his commitment to one of our customers Allam Marine in Hull by personally delivering the 15000th engine purchased by them in a single year. The landmark delivery followed a promise nine years earlier by Allan to owner Assem Allam to support his company’s growth plans. In the latter role as Operations Director he oversaw both the introduction to Perkins and IPSD of  the Caterpillar Production System, and large investments in the transformation of our production facilities in Peterborough and worldwide.

Allan’s talents extend well beyond business – he used to play bass guitar in a band and once, at a Varity Conference in Rome, he took on the persona of “Stretch Limo”, the question-master of a spoof University Challenge competition for an evening’s entertainment. A team from Perkins was pitted against a team from Kelsey Hayes, and Allan, complete with flashing bow tie, set and asked the questions. Far be it from me to suggest that the questions were rigged, but the Perkins team scored a comprehensive victory over their opponents!

Allan was well regarded for the support he gave to his staff, encouraging them to continually develop their skills and qualifications. He promoted this in various ways. One of these, called “Ready to do battle” encouraged Life Long Learning. His message was: “Once you get into learning, you are learning for life and you find yourself more and more capable”. It was this belief in Life Long Learning where he was also to make his mark in the Community. Allan became involved in local  education and skills development,  becoming the chair of the Greater Peterborough Training and Enterprise Council and then Deputy Chair of the Cambridgeshire Learning and Skills Council. Allan also worked on the strategic development of the City of Peterborough as chair of the Greater Peterborough Partnership. His services to life-long learning and economic development led to his being awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2001.

Allan’s dedication to learning took a further leap forward in 2007 with sponsorship by Perkins,  the Deacon‘s School Trust, the Peterborough City Council and the Department for Education of the Thomas Deacon Academy. Allan was appointed one of two Company sponsor Directors on the board of the Thomas Deacon Academy. This new academy, which incorporated several schools including Hereward Community College, and which was built on the site of  Deacon’s school, was opened in September 2007 specialising in maths and science and is today the educational home for 2200 students. Allan only stood down in 2018 from what had developed into the Thomas Deacon Education Trust comprising several academies in Greater Peterborough.

In June 2008 he was appointed Chairman of the University Centre Peterborough as the organisation prepared to start work on the building of a £9 million university centre, building on land next to the Peterborough Regional College. It was Allan’s dream to help develop the City’s educational opportunities still further, and change it from being the UK’s largest City without a University. His dream is now a reality with over 800 students studying 25 courses at the University Centre.

If this was not enough, following his retirement, Allan also became a non-executive member of the Board  of the Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In 2013 he was appointed its senior independent director and deputy Chairman. Allan stood down from his work with the Trust just last year.

Not least, Allan greatly values his friendships with Perkins people and is a strong supporter of this Long Service Club. He was made an Honorary member in 2011. He always attends this Annual Dinner, at which he takes time to talk with old friends and colleagues. He has been our Master of Ceremonies at our dinners on three occasions, although sadly without a flashing bow tie!

Please put your hands together for our Quarter Centurion of 2019, as I ask Allan Arnott, OBE, to step forward to receive his award from David Goldspink. 

Citation ends. 

Allan came forward to a standing ovation to receive the Award.

Allan was invited to the microphone to say a few words.

“When I have been MC here and elsewhere before I always whisper to the speaker ‘keep it short’ so tonight I will follow my own guidance and do just that!”

Allan explained what a wonderful surprise it was. He thanked the Committee for selecting him for the prestigious Quarter Centurian Award for this year. He was grateful to the Committee for that, and for the Company’s support for them and the Long Service Club.

The carefully and thoughtfully assembled citation and accompanying slide show had brought back many vivid memories, and also told of long forgotten events—so long forgotten that he thought they were made up and could not have happened!

They told a story of a wonderful company, our company, doing exciting things, with great products, great customers and distributors, and of course, having great employees.

Everything that the Company stood for, and his pride in it, had given him the energy to do his best for it always, and the energy to represent it in the community and in the development of Peterborough.

He finished by saying “Thank you all, and the Company, for the times that you let me be part of and shape, and to the committee for this touching Quarter Centurian award.”

To round the evening off, Stuart called upon David Goldspink to draw the raffle which had been running all evening, and the winners came forward to collect their prizes. 

Stuart thanked all the guests and the Company for their continued support for the evening’s event, including Richard Graves for providing the services of Toby Mears our photographer. He further thanked the Holiday Inn Duty Manager Vash Taylor and Restaurant Manager Mark Bevington and his staff for making the evening so enjoyable. Finally, the Club looked forward to seeing many members over the coming year at some of the great Club events which have been organised and advised the date for next year’s dinner as Friday May 15th 2020 at the Holiday Inn.

To conclude, some photographs taken during the evening by the company photographer: