IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE PUBLISHED THE FIRST PART OF THE HISTORY OF TECHNICAL SALES DEPARTMENT, MOST OF THAT BEING SUPPLIED BY TED FARMER, SO BELATEDLY, WE HAVE GOT AROUND TO FINISHING OFF THE SUBJECT, WITH THE HELP & GUIDANCE OF ANOTHER LONGTERM T.S.D. MEMBER, MARTIN EDE.
We are doing this second section a little differently, whereby Martin`s narrative is laid out first, followed by reports & images on some very diverse occasions, some relating direct to T.S.D., others not, but as they are all supplied by Martin, we have a sort of combined history of a well respected BH department, and also a bit of reminiscing by Martin of occasions attended during his 17 odd years with The Company.
So to commence, let us partake of Martin`s, for once, almost non-technical report …….
MARTIN S. EDE, AUGUST 2010.
Now we come to the fun bit, not that Martin`s story wasn`t, but we have the piccys now, and a shed-load of faces from the past for all to check out and remember, not necessarily in chronological order, just as they fell on the desk.
Firstly, we shall show again one that appeared in the first part of this article, but without names, and you know how we love putting names to faces, so lets return for a moment to a Crawler Sales School in Newhouse in 1979, and, as we are sure you would guess, Martin has named them all, well actually, all but one, so not a lot for you to do but reminisce over old friends…….
….from left to right….Dougie Kemp#, Ted Lyne, Jackie Greenan, Alan (Golf Day) Matchett, Peter Bourne, David (What`s a mortgage?) Taylor, John Bradley#, Les (I came up the hard way) Brind, Unknown, Bob (Top Office) Stallard, Peter Hardy, David Cassells, George (The Duke) Mitchell, Uncle Ted Farmer, Peter (Club Baba, and any other club for that matter) Tomlinson, Ian (Oldshoremore) Davis#, Andy (I used to demonstrate) Warth, Ron (Who`s nicked my trilby, boyo) Martin, and of course Martin ( ) Ede himself. All marked # are from Terex of course.
So who is the unkown face ninth from the left ?? Let us know if you know.
Now we go back even further, to the first of Martin`s occasions, another seminar in Scotland, 1973, at the Royal Scot in Edinburgh, only this time, it was a Terex Sales Conference, and it is documented in full in the edition of "Letter From Scotland, 1973", of which we have a copy. Some of it is printed here, but the whole "letter" will also be in TEREX section of BHM quite soon.
Amongst the faces shown on the page 1 group are the following Hodgites….Tony Nelmes, Ted Lyne, Ron Martin, Frank Woodward, Bob Jones, Dan Willis (honourary), Peter Hardy, Tony Barker, Jimmy James, Alan Hadwin, & of course, the 1st Laird of Dunblane, Euan Mackintosh. The others we just cant recognise, so again, if you know, let us know.
Now a different type of image from, we assume, much later that night, or the next, at some sort of ceilidh or similar….present are George Gray, Terry Benn, Black John, & Martin, who relates that later that night, this being his first sales conference, he reluctantly took part in a 100 yards sprint, which even today, Big Jack says that he won !!
Back a bit to years 1977 & 1978, the Queen`s, followed by BH`s Silver Jubilee…a letter from Mr Shapland to the chosen few who received a …. well read the letter….
…and then the Party in the Park, Hyde Park to be precise, and are these boys not partying…
….Mr Ede, Mr Vernon-Smith, and Mr John Gill all obviously taking their work very seriously !! The "ladies" then climbed all over the 33-07 that was being exhibited…….we would imagine it is possible that some of the chaps in attendance possibly climbed all over…ahem, that will do !!
With regard to the Zettelmeyer reference in Martin`s earlier writings, here we have a series of images recorded during the early days of demonstrations & sales of that wonderful little German loading shovel, these particular photos covering the use of them in ship trimming, down at Kingsnorth Power Station in 1984, but firtly, the record of Martin and Austin Field in Germany with the press, and the late Ingo Richarz, Zettelmeyers very close liason with BH….
Machines involved are the 72-15, and the slightly larger 72-25…..
…..shows the auger and a couple of 72-15`s hard at work…..
…..the loader being lifted out after completion of the job…….
…..and the 72-25 going into another ship………
……..and a WD3001 rubber tyred dozer, also at Kingsnorth on evaluation trials….
…..with a 15 foot coal blade, making quite an impact….
Spring 1986 edition of the BH News reviewed BH Group Services, of which Technical Sales had been an integral part since 1979, on its move from London Office to the "Palace of Varieties" on the hill at Hunsbury.
The article is self explanatory, and contains yet another shot of an extremely young S S Wheatman….sorry about the diference in print & foto size, but the article was an awkward shape.
Dont know whether Geoff Barber (Barker above) complained to Blackie about his name spelling !!
Getting towards the end now, and how could one finish without the final Sales Organization chart, family tree, call it what you will…..
We wonder in this harsh commercial world of today, if you were going to employ people this week, just how many of the above would figure in your final sales team !! We only got as far as eight, mainly because we couldnt have afforded the expenses of several of them, never mind the fact that they weren`t good enough either !!
On a much lighter note, a shot taken at the last major Sales School that Tech Sales ever organized, at the Bridge Hotel in Hamilton, February 1990.
This was the School where Terex entertained all & sundry at the Chatelherault restaurant, the onetime hunting lodge of the Dukes` of Hamilton, and heavy bets and boasts were made regarding the very soon upcoming Calcutta Cup match in Edinburgh…..anyway, we digress. Feast your eyes (??) on the last Sales Team image ever of BH salesmen, managers & directors, some not with us anymore, but most still around, and now qualified as grumpy old men !!
l to r ..Ted Bell, Martin Ede, Simon Bridge, Peter Bourne, Kenny Coughlan, Peter Goodley, David Taylor, Unknown, Gerry McGuckin, Dick Gane, John Judson, Keith Brealey, Tommy Asplin, Brian Redman, Terry Benn, John ??????, Danny Lightfoot, ?????? Robinson, Geoff ??????, Michael F-A, Field Marshall Higson, Unknown, Unknown, Eric Belcher, Unknown, S.S.Wheatman, Johnny Johnson, Uncle Ted, Unknown, Unknown, & by no means least, John Colver.
We extend our thanks to Ted & Martin for this potted history of Technical Sales………would they have been able to have still been writing about it into the 21st Century…..probably quite a few of us would vote for that !!
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