One of Branston’s Longest Serving Employees Retires

This week Branston says goodbye to one of our longest-serving employees – Chris Taylor, who is finally retiring after over 42 years with the business.

Chris joined Branston back in 1983. In those days peas were also a key focus and his main task through the summer was to keep the pea crops safe from flocks of birds. Gradually he moved into driving the pea viners and combine harvesters during the summer, and in winter he would pack the 25kg bags of potatoes ready for market. It was tough, manual work.

Seven years later he started working in the factory as a supervisor. He worked as supervisor for several years before taking a sidestep into looking after the fuel management for the factory. Over the years he’s worked across most areas – from Engineering to Agronomy – and he’s seen many changes as the business has grown.

In recent years, Chris has organised the many regular and ad hoc potato donations from the Lincoln site, making sure that all the local charities get their potatoes on time. He also looks after all those little extras like delivering fresh fruit all around the offices and canteens, keeping the site tidy and the plants maintained.

Chris says: “There’s almost nothing I haven’t done and that’s why I’ve never been bored.

“I think I stayed because of the mutual trust and respect I have with the Branston team. They’ve always been very honest. I’ve been at Branston for over half of my life and if I had the chance to do it again, I wouldn’t do anything different.”