It's party time at itmsoil, Uckfield

An Uckfield business celebrated a year of remarkable growth at its Christmas party on Friday.

Staff from the London office of itmsoil, an instrumentation and monitoring company, came to Uckfield to join local employees for the occasion.

Apparently invited to a country pub called The Uncivil Engineer they arrived to find it built especially for the party, at the company’s Bell Lane headquarters.

All were delighted to see their boardroom transformed into a traditional pub, complete with oak barrels, a fireplace, a full bar and a table overflowing with a candlelit Dickensian-style feast.

Secret

Lucie Williams, a senior site technician, based at Uckfield said: “It is fantastic, they have done a really good job. A lot of work has gone into this and it was all kept secret. It is lovely and there is a nice relaxed atmosphere.”

Dominic Kisz, a project technician based at Holborn said he had only been with the company for seven months and it was a great opportunity to meet more people. “The boardroom looks much better this way,” he added.

Group chief executive officer Mark Kirkbride said he preferred the pub too though there would be no trace of it left by the time he chaired a board meeting on Monday.

Lucky

“We are lucky as a business because we are growing so quickly. While the company has been here nearly 50 years, in the last 18 months we have gone from a business producing a consistent steady performance to one that has doubled in size.

“We will have same growth again next year despite all the economic doom and gloom. We are an unusual business riding a bit of a positive wave because of what we do.

“We are not only growing financially. We have grown from just over 100 people to 170 and next year could well go beyond 200.”

Important

Mr Kirkbride said itmsoil staff were very important to the business. “We employ a lot of people with diverse skills and for me it is really important to look after them, get them together and say thank you for the work they do.”

Itmsoil designs and manufactures equipment trusted in virtually every country in the world to ensure the safety of major construction projects including civil engineering, mining, dams, railways and road infrastructures.

Celebrating at the itmsoil Christmas party is chief executive Mark Kirkbride with Holly Batchelor, left, and Naomi Reynolds.

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