Dorset: Wessex Group MD retires after 50 years with the company

After a 50-year career at Dorset’s Wessex Group, where he began as an apprentice and finished as a managing director, Gordon Green has retired.

Over 100 staff, past and present, attended his farewell event at the Royal Chase Hotel in Shaftesbury and wished him well for his future on the golf course.

Wessex Group is now a multi-million-pound company with nearly 400 staff, but when Green started in 1964 the only other person there was founder Tony Morgan.

In a speech, Morgan told how Green was recruited for his six-year apprenticeship at Wessex Electricals after the business he was working for burned down.  He added: “Gordon has been a major and pivotal part of Wessex Group’s success.  He’s been a loyal and good friend who has never let Wessex down and I can honestly say we’ve never had a cross word in 50 years.”

At the emotional evening Green was presented with a number of gifts including an embroidered golf bag and full set of clubs. He publicly thanked Tony Morgan for ‘having the wisdom to take me on’ and recalled how things had changed over the years.  He said: “When I started I didn’t know what a computer was and we couldn’t have imagined carrying a phone around.”

Simon Morgan, who alongside brother Alistair now runs the group, said: “Gordon was the first person my father Tony took on. And as my brother Alistair said on the night, Wessex is as much a Gordon Green success story as it is a Morgan family story.

“Gordon was our first apprentice and we’ve been taking them on ever since.  This year is no exception and maybe one of them will retire in 50 years as managing director.”

Wessex Group, which is still based in Shaftesbury where it began, consists of six companies including Wessex Electricals where Gordon spent his career.