After the usual housekeeping comments, Stuart pointed out the company products that were on display: a Cat® branded Battery pack and a Perkins®  904J engine.

Stuart then welcomed the Club Patron, David Goldspink , who is Vice President and General Manager Medium Engines and Caterpillar UK Country Manager with responsibility for the Manufacturing and Engineering of Medium Engines globally.

He also welcomed the guest speaker, Ann Brown, Vice President Global Facility Operations. and the other Senior Company representatives:

·      Jon Horn – Senior Director Finance

·      Steve McLone – Director Product Support

·      Richard Preece - Director Global Procurement

·      Mark McClure – Director of Operations

·      Laura Guillen – Assistant General Counsel

·      Caroline Burstall – Director Supply Chain

·      Rob Collard – Senior Manager Manufacturing Engineering

·      Julia Pimblett – Communications Manager Medium Engines

In addition present were representatives from the Team Gold Award Projects who would be introduced later and a number of representatives from the Employee Resource Groups. Employee Resource Groups, or ERGs, are a relatively recent innovation within Caterpillar and connect employees who share similar life experiences or interests. The groups are company sponsored, and employee led, and are able to share experiences that provide opportunities for personal and professional development while fostering a greater sense that every employee is valued.

Five ERGs (out of 12 in the company) were represented: ACTivate, Young Professionals, Women in Engineering, Lambda and Women’s Initiative Network.

Company Charities

This year the club was again collecting money for the two Company charities, Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice and Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire Mind, otherwise known as CPSL Mind. As usual the Company would again match everything we collected.

During dinner we were entertained by table magician, Jamie Segrave who went round the tables baffling people with card tricks.

Dinner consisted of Roast tomato and red pepper soup, Chicken fillet with crushed new potatoes and vegetables followed by apple and blackberry crumble tart and finished with coffee or tea with after dinner mints. Vegan and Gluten Free options were available. The red wine was Central Mont Merlot from Chile, and the white wine a South African Inkosi Chenin Blanc.

Throughout the meal, a slideshow (created by Bob Gregory-Smith) was run with images from the 2023 dinner and a couple of the events which took place in the last year.

At the end of the meal the usual toast to the King was made before a short break.

During the break, club members were able to have their pictures taken by Toby Mears, before the formal part of the evening was resumed.

President’s Speech

Before the President’s speech, the outgoing President, Garth Perry handed the President’s Rosebowl and a pewter tankard keepsake to the new President, Adrian Talbot, who then addressed the assembled company.

Adrian started by welcoming everyone, including the Company guests, and he paid tribute to David Goldspink for his continued support as Patron. He thanked Garth Perry for his leadership over the last two and a half years and his work leading the Conservation Group, and acknowledged the hard work of the whole Committee.

As he had been President previously, he did not say anything about his career other than to say that he retired in November 2020, and that his retirement presentation was done over Teams! He said that in retirement he wanted the Company to do well, and said that this was what our Club was about. The inaugural aims were, and still are, ‘To maintain the bonds of fellowship through the activities of the club and to advance the interests of the company wherever and whenever possible.’ He said that this dinner was the prime example of those aims in action – people joining to meet old friends and colleagues, and taking an interest in how the Company was doing.

He updated members on the PLSC Strategy project led by Bill Guest, which had identified four key areas to be reviewed with sub-groups assigned to each:

1)  Focus on improving communication – led by Adrian Talbot

2)  Review the Constitution – led by Bill Guest

3)  Continue recruitment drive of current employees – led by Anna Errico

4)  Enhance the events programme – led by Michelle Wyld

1. Communication – A Communications plan has been developed and implemented. Improvements have been made to our communication with members and also within the Company to raise our profile using the Company internal communications. He emphasised that increasingly our communication with members will be done by digital means, which is why it is important that members advise us of their email addresses.

2. Constitution – One meeting has been held to gain the team’s views on things like the Club’s aims, service requirements, the club’s name, and potential partnerships with other company groups, amongst other items. This group is covering potentially the most controversial subject area, but one it is important to get right. Adrian said it was also important that all our members are supported through any potential changes and improvements that are made.

3. Recruitment – Quarterly recruitment drives are being held in Franks, and to date we have recruited circa 70 new employed members taking our currently employed membership from 6% two years ago to just under 20% of our total membership.

4. Events Programme – The team have incorporated and trialled new events to encourage some of our current employed members to take part, such as weekend events, Newmarket Nights, and others. Warner holidays, theatre, day trips and social outings will continue as these events remain a key element of the programme for retired employees. More events will be developed for 2025.

Adrian concluded by proposing a toast to the company and guests.

Patron’s Speech

David Goldspink was invited to respond and address the Club.

David started by saying that Caterpillar finished 2023 strongly with record performance for both Caterpillar and Industrial Power Systems. We are confident in our future and have a sound strategy which is clearly delivering.

He moved on to say that the Company announced last October the appointment of Joe Creed to the new position of Chief Operating Officer. He reports to Jim Umpleby, the Chaiman and CEO. Among the 4 Group Presidents reporting to Joe Creed is Jason Kaiser who replaced Joe as Group President of Energy & Transportation. (the group which includes IPSD).

Product Launches

Caterpillar: David talked about the new Cat C13D, a 13-litre engine which was launched at ConExpo 2023. It is a class-leading diesel engine platform and has been designed for the future development of natural gas and hydrogen fuel capabilities.

More recently, Caterpillar announced a three-year programme to demonstrate an advanced hydrogen-hybrid power solution built on its new C13D engine platform.

Perkins launched its own 13-litre diesel engine platform, the 2600 Series, which is targeting applications including agriculture and construction, and extends Perkins leadership in high-performing, mid-sized engines.

Perkins is collaborating with Equipmake and Loughborough University on an advanced multi-fuel ‘drop-in’ hybrid integrated power unit (IPU), able to directly replace its diesel equivalent in terms of power density and response. It will enable industrial OEMs to accelerate their transition to lower-carbon or zero carbon fuels such as hydrogen, methanol, bio-ethanol and other eFuels and to harness electrification.

Electric power generation customers saw the launch of Perkins® 5012 and 5008 models from the 5000 Series range, while the company extended its Stage V offering with the addition of a powerful new 18 litre engine.

David ended by saying that overall the business is thriving and that Ann Brown would talk about the business across the global facilities.

Guest Speaker

Stuart introduced the guest speaker, Ann Brown. Ann joined Caterpillar in 1998, after graduating with a BA Hons in Business Studies. She has worked across several Caterpillar divisions and businesses including Global Purchasing and Electric Power.

Ann is currently Vice President, Global Facility Operations, and has responsibility for Medium Engines Order to Delivery, including supply chain, manufacturing engineering, continuous improvement, and operations within the four Industrial Power System’s facilities in the UK, China, Brazil, and the USA.

Ann thanked the Long Service Committee for the invitation to speak and told us that she was operationally responsible for the global facilities in Wuxi China, Griffin, US, Curitiba, Brazil and Peterborough. She spoke about each of the facilities in turn.

Griffin, Georgia

Griffin, which celebrates its 20-year anniversary this year, is managed by Mike Mangin and produces 1.1 to 2.2 litre engines, both IDI and CRDi (Common Rail DI).

They engage with the Community in supporting “Backpack for Kids” – loading up backpacks with meals for children with food insecurity risks – and have participated in a STEM day at the local High School to share information on careers in engineering and manufacturing.

Wuxi, China

This facility celebrated its 15-year anniversary last year and Ron Wu, is the facility manager. It manufactures 0.5 to 7.1 litre engines, again both IDI and CRDi.

In March, Wuxi hosted Caterpillar Chairman Jim Umpleby,  who highly recognised Wuxi’s operational excellence in Lean deployment, digitalisation and automation. The facility has been a finalist in the Operational Excellence Chairman’s award every year for the last 5 years and has won it twice.

Wuxi has had a successful ramp up both 904 and 1200 Series with excellent quality performance.

Curitiba, Brazil

Curitiba, which celebrated its 20-year anniversary last year, supplies the 1100 Series, and is managed by Rodrigo Chibior. The facility manufactures 3.3 to 7.1 litre products.

They are constantly expanding the customer footprint and increasing export volumes.

The Parts Centre in Curitiba celebrates its 5-year anniversary this year.

Peterborough, UK

Mark McClure manages the Peterborough facility which celebrated its 90th anniversary last year and manufactures 1.1 to 7.1 litre products.

Finally, Ann spoke about the Perkins Heritage. She said this is still extremely important to the business and wants to protect it. The pandemic paused the good work that was being done to preserve the past, but the good news is that the committee has been reformed under Dave Robinson and Colin Herring who are actively working to get communications and plans up and running. 

Stuart Morgan thanked Ann for her most informative speech and commented that those members who were drawing pensions could be confident that the company was in very good hands.

The evening then moved on to the presentations.

Team Gold Award.
Stuart explained the purpose of the Team Gold Award (see here on our website).

This year two projects had made it to the final, and the representatives of both teams, Dan Cooke and Richard Bates, Tony Whitfield and Jay Akbarwere were asked to come forward as each project was described before the winner was announced.

First was the Emerging Leaders Programme, represented by Dan Cooke and Richard Bates.

Effective leaders are critical to the success of any enterprise. The vision for this project was to develop a learning and support framework to help individual contributors who display leadership potential to learn about key leadership concepts and attributes prior to taking their first leadership role.

Displaying excellent teamwork, the project delivered an experience that blended formal learning, discussion forums, coaching, mentoring and networking, and intentionally involved participants in leadership activities to gain practical experience. Panel discussions were supported by 15 different senior leaders who shared their time, experience and wisdom on each of the 10 leadership topics which were covered. 

The project was run as a pilot in the Sales and Marketing, Service and Parts area and included participants and leaders worldwide. It has provided the template for successful replication throughout the business with potential for a large beneficial future impact on the business.

The other finalist project was Warranty Excellence represented by Tony Whitfield and Jay Akbar.

Warranty is one of the key Service elements which provides direct, tangible customer value, demonstrating confidence in the products and services, while having a positive impact on the customer experience.

Research showed that the Perkins Warranty system needed updating to benefit from the latest world class standards. The Warranty Excellence project identified and implemented an industry-leading Closed Loop warranty process that gives early warning of emerging issues, which has resulted in a significant reduction in claims processing time, faster feedback to Production on any potential problems, and increased customer satisfaction. Additionally, a number of key customers, who previously did not use the Perkins Warranty system have come on board.

Excellence was a key focus of the project.

David Goldspink then announced that the winning team was Warranty Excellence and presented the award to Tony Whitfield and Jay Akbar. He presented a runner-up certificate to Dan Cooke and Richard Bates.

On behalf of the Warranty Excellence project, Tony Whitfield thanked the Club for the award, and explained that the project had exceeded its objectives due to the teamwork of all involved.

Honorary Membership Certificates

Next came presentation of the Honorary Membership Certificates to those who had achieved the age of 80 since the last dinner.

This year 18 members qualified for Honorary Membership. 6 of them were present and came forward to receive their certificates from David Goldspink:

·      Richard Carter

·      Ivan Hammond

·      Garth Perry

·      Michael Rust

·      Charles Stevens

·      Roger Warren

The others not present, whom we had been able to contact and had given permission for their names to be displayed were:

·      Steve Gilbert

·      Peter Holmes

·      Michael Humphreys

·      Peter Nicholas

·      Alan Peppercorn

·      Pat Russell

·      Peter Stones

·      + 5 others

Quarter Centurion of the Year

The final award of the evening was the Quarter Centurion of the Year Rose Bowl which is decided by the Club’s Executive Committee, and is made to the member who has made an outstanding, special contribution over the years to the Community (locally or nationally), the Club or the Company.

Stuart said that normally, the Committee tries to keep the name of the winner secret. But this year it was simply not possible because the winner was so deeply involved in the details of this evening’s dinner, for example writing the MC’s script, that he had to be advised. The winner was a member of the Club’s Committee, Bob Gregory-Smith.

Stuart said that although he knew he was the winner, he did not know what was in the citation, prepared by David Foster, which he then read out.

·      Bob joined the Club committee in 2010

·      He served as President in 2011 and 2012, and then again in 2015

·      During his first Presidency he revamped the Perkins Team Gold Award, which is an important link between the Club and the Company. This entailed firstly defining the desired criteria, including the Caterpillar Values, that the Club judges were looking for in the submissions, and secondly, defining a scoring system based on facts and achievements by the Teams, rather than using subjective impressions which had been the approach in the past. The whole process is recorded on Excel spread sheets which Bob created to add up scores and ensure impartial results.

·      During his Presidencies and right up until the present, Bob has been the editing and printing skill behind the annual Programme of Events Booklet. His perseverance and patience ensure all the details are correct (usually!). He manages the process, creating and editing the document, obtaining quotes and liaising with the printers through until the booklets are ready for despatch.

·      He set up the Club Facebook group and is also responsible for the emails that we now send to all members, as he mastered how to use mail merge in order to send out news and updates. This has greatly improved our communication with members.

·      Following a conversation with the then Patron Gwenne Henricks, he set up with Mick Wicks the Club’s Conservation Group, and is one of the most frequent and reliable attenders, whatever the rain and weather. He has become the group’s "Arsonist-in-Chief" to burn all the cuttings the group collects. A bag of kindling is produced at every session, always consisting of broken-up fencing, allegedly salvaged from a neighbour's old, discarded fence - the Group wonder if the neighbours have any fencing left, or has it all mysteriously disappeared overnight!!

·      He can be relied on for sound counsel on just about any subject that comes up in the Club’s business. He also works with David Foster as co-webmaster and organises many of the things for the annual dinner, such as the slides shown during the evening.

·      He even goes so far as to taste and jointly select the wines we have enjoyed – a task much envied by other Committee members!

·      He is also a reliable supporter of his local Church in Werrington. He is their Health and Safety Officer which meant that throughout the pandemic had to write a lot of risk assessments to keep up with the frequently changing COVID regulations. He is also one of the technicians there, ensuring the sound equipment is in working order whenever needed. And he is known for his singing ability, singing Christmas carols in the choir, sometimes solo.

·      Until last year, when he went with his wife Mary to visit family in Australia last Autumn and Christmas, his other special service to the community has been as an active helper/contributor to the Operation Christmas Child project run by Samaritan’s Purse. It is the world’s largest children’s Christmas project, where people donate and pack a gift-filled shoe box for a child in need. At Christmas Bob would organise van collections of the shoeboxes (often with himself as driver) from his area which extends from Huntingdon to Skegness. He would then take them to a collection point for onward transmission abroad.

·      Finally, Bob is a Liveryman of the Worship Company of Carpenters, which is one of the ancient guild and craft companies in the City of London, and serves as a Pension Fund Trustee.

So will you please congratulate our winner this year, exceptional in many ways, not only is he comfortable, confident and competent to hold a prominent leadership role, he is a person who is happy to “sweat the detail”, as they say. Please put your hands together for our Quarter Centurion of 2024, as I ask Bob Gregory-Smith to step forward to receive his award from David Goldspink.

In response, Bob thanked the Club for the honour of the award. He pointed out that although the award is decided by the Committee, he did not have a vote this year!

He said he did what he could to help the Club because he was proud of it and what its members represented in terms of service to the Company and in making it what it is today – initially Perkins and now it is the Medium Engines group of Caterpillar’s Industrial Power Systems. 

He said he wanted to see the Club grow and flourish into the future, and that it will and must evolve over time in order to survive, but at its heart will still be employees and former employees who have dedicated a significant part of their working lives to building a great company.

He ended by proposing a toast to the Club.

‘Thanks’ and Closing words

Stuart extended sincere thanks to David Goldspink for his continuing and enthusiastic support for our Club which makes the evening not only possible, but the key event of the Club’s year.

He thanked all the other guests for coming, especially guest speaker Ann Brown, also Neil Kitson and Annette Ward, who although not present, had provided assistance in many ways and arranged the products that were on display. Stuart expressed thanks to the Executive Committee for their work in organising the Dinner.

Adrian then took over and said that Stuart and his partner were cycling from Land's End to John ‘O Groats to raise money for the Peterborough Hospital Oncology Ward and he presented Stuart with a cheque for the collection and also a bottle of wine as a thank you token from the Club.

The date for next year’s dinner is Friday 16th May 2025 at the Holiday Inn

Below are pictures that were taken on the evening by Toby Mears.

The following 4 photos show the fun enjoyed at the various tables with the magician Jamie Segrave:

Below are the 80 remaining photos, mainly snapshots, without names, taken at the dinner. If anyone would like a photo or photos, simply send an email to the Webmaster quoting the photo number(s).