After more than 30 years with A.W. Jenkinson, Chris Hardy is retiring this month

Chris initially turned down the offer by Allan and his late brother Robert to drive the first green and white for them, due to his young family. He eventually joined in January 1991 after working for Bulman’s Bulk & Haulage for 5 years - first as a driver then as Transport Manager.

The office team of Julie, Roger and Brian was then based in the Bungalow at Clifton. Chris’s first task was to develop wood residue supply from sawmills in Ireland to meet the requirements of the UK market. This gradually built up to a peak of 33 loads per day and a boatload every month or so.

As the residue market developed in Ireland the demand for bark there was also increasing. Irish Peat Producers had won the contract for supply to a major UK DIY chain and were having to develop a peat-free option for the growing media they were to supply. By contacting the Head of their horticultural division, Chris organised a meeting and a visit to Clifton to demonstrate our capabilities as a supplier. This resulted in a contract that runs on to this very day as one of the UK’s leading peat-free growing media suppliers to both the amateur and professional markets.

With the AWJ Fleet growing a site was sourced to accommodate the additional vehicles. This led to the purchase from Penrith Door Company of a site on Penrith Industrial Estate and Chris was tasked with developing this, which he accomplished in stages, the first being the creation of an access road, draining a large lake and establishing utility supplies. Stage two was the setup of an office, weighbridge and parking areas and then the concreting of one and a half acres to facilitate the composting of the bark fines for the peat-free market. This was followed by purchasing the first shavings baler, overseeing installation and commissioning.

At the same time Chris was holding down the role of Fleet Manager, including the introduction of Mercedes Actros’s into the Fleet and the addition of Kooi-app truck-mounted forklift trucks to meet the requirements of a large paper/magazine contract.

In August 2000 a new site was bought at Lockerbie next to the two sawmills there. The whole area had been an Enterprise prepared site intended for a large board mill, but when they pulled out, it was to be developed to support the local Forestry industry.

Like Penrith site this entailed designing and preparing a site to meet AWJ requirements of office space, weighbridge, bulk storage facilities and driver amenities. As usual, this meant that Chris was multitasking - from painting the new offices to driving a loading shovel in the commissioning sawmill next door.

Coinciding with this was the foot and mouth outbreak.  This created a lot of additional work for both the fleet and the infrastructure. The site at Steven’s Croft was invaluable as a transfer station for coal for the funeral pyres - clean wagons delivered coal and Chris had to tranship it onto ‘dirty’ 8 wheelers taking it back to the infected farms for the pyres.

The next major development at Lockerbie was when Allan sold some of the remaining site to E.ON for their first Biomass power station. This led to Chris being involved with the construction, design and management of the Fuel Preparation Area which was the sole supplying mechanism to the power station. Chris liaised with the Development team and subsequently the Operation team from E.ON to develop both a successful and a profitable operation.

After commissioning and a number of years operation, while at the same time assisting the Transport division (namely in passing his Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor exams every 5 years and carrying out all the SEPA reports for the E.ON associated operation), it was decided Chris needed a new challenge and so in 2013 he departed Lockerbie back to Clifton to take on the our first internal Health and Safety role, passing his NEBOSH exams with a credit and missing Distinction by only 3 marks.

He set about upgrading the site at Clifton to include safe walkways, safety interlocks to machinery and gates, upgrading standing instructions and method statements, together with dealing with the HSE to investigate any accidents. As the A.W. Jenkinson Group expanded, the role became too large for one person and a new team was set up. This left Chris free to develop a new role as Group Support Manager - a role he has held up to his retirement. 

This position involved Chris using his wealth of experience to help others in the Group. He also dealt with Facility management issues and took over responsibility for the AWJ and AWJTL fleet of cars and vans as well as licensing the HGV Fleet and dealing with all the relevant paperwork with the disposal of the used fleet. When Allan purchased his first helicopter, it was left to Chris to manage this, which led him to moving to an office at Whinfell Park for last few years and being on hand as required by Allan.

Chris has flourished within the AWJ structure with his ’can do’ attitude and Allan’s mantra of “if you want a job doing, give it to a busy person”. As people of a certain age will recall, a certain TV character Yosser Hughes’ catchphrase ‘Gizza job - I can do that’ sits comfortably within Chris’s CV.

Chris has always been known for his problem-solving approach, his readiness to take on any challenge, and his dedication to the job. We thank him for everything he’s brought to the company, and we wish him a very happy and long retirement.