Spooner Employee Clocks up Half a Century

Spooner employee and Ilkley resident, Richard Garnett, clocks up a special reason to celebrate this month (July 2011) as it marks the 50thanniversary of his employment with the company. Having started his career with Spooner as a 16 year old apprentice in July 1961, today Richard acts as a technical consultant, having officially retired from full time employment in May last year. Richard began work in the old factory on the Railway Road site in Ilkley and took home £2.50 a week. Over the years he has worked his way from the shop floor through research and development, the drawing office, sales and eventually to the applications department of which he became manager in 1989. The company, which is now based in purpose built new premises in Ilkley and is one of the town’s biggest employers with over 150 staff, has come a long way from its beginnings in 1932 with just Mr Spooner and his three employees. Richard is one of a few remaining members of staff who remembers life working for the founder, William Wycliffe Spooner. “Mr Spooner was a gifted inventor who was passionate about his work and made sure his employees felt like part of the family, ” recalls Richard. “I have seen plenty of changes over the years, mainly with the introduction of computers which reduced some engineering tasks from taking a week to being completed in just one day. The company has always maintained the family values that Mr Spooner developed with the annual BBQ, cricket match and various sports & social club activities.” The company was established in 1932, initially developing machinery for the textile industry, but Mr Spooner’s revolutionary inventions for industrial drying equipment were soon applied to other industries including paper, converting, metals and food. Today Spooner supply industrial ovens, dryers and coolers to clients around the world for processes including baking bread, converting non-woven materials, drying coated paper, curing paint onto metal strip and more recently reducing harmful emissions released into the air with the new environmental systems equipment range.

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