The Decade Milestone

In a way, it’s surprising that it’s only 10 years since Stu joined Source. It feels like he’s been here forever and is mainstay in the office and warehouse.

Stu was a customer of ours when he was an Area Manager for Heath & Wiltshire. With young twins, being on the road at all times of the day and night wasn’t ideal so a role at Source was well suited.

Running the day to day operations and stock control is a full-on remit with untold moving parts. In keeping with the Source ethos, Stu has strong working relationships with suppliers and customers whilst conducting the driving team on a daily basis to ensure we are consistently prompt, responsive and reliable.

There is part of Stu that loves a Source cock up (we’re only human) as it gives him and his team a chance to many miles over ‘extra’ to assist the customer. As a rule of thumb, we generally say ‘yes’ to our many weird and wonderful customer requests and Stu is often the architect of the execution.

He’s been known to drive to Newcastle and Scotland and back in a single day for a customer (which is more extraordinary than it sounds given he won’t go over 60mph in his truck). Stu is often on customer sites at any hour of the day or night assisting customers with tricky cleaning tasks, offering up advice and experience from his 30+ years in the commercial cleaning industry.

Source massively benefits from having a key person who is ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ in that he has an empathic perspective when it comes to what the customer needs and why.

Away from Source (if there is such a thing in Stu’s world), football and golf play a key part. Coaching locally in Berkshire, Stu runs his kid’s U15 football team and has been involved in grass roots football for many years. Many lads have gone from his coaching to make a living from the game, most notably Aston Villa and Poland International, Matty Cash, who played under Stu for many seasons as a lad.

With an excellent understudy in Aaron, Stu is now learning the art of delegation and letting things go, which is often harder than it sounds. Aaron is learning everyday from Stu which further strengthens the business and goes some way to encouraging Stu to find a semblance of work life balance.

We can’t provide this testimonial without acknowledging his amazing (we won’t say ‘long suffering’) wife, Sarah, who also works in the business, as many of you will know. 

At Source we weave in philanthropic challenges into our working life and Stu has completed several of our marathon canal treks over the years which starts in London and finished at Source. The first year, Stu rolled up in a pair of Reebok Classics and footy shorts, plodding 27 miles through the night in torrential rain with Dave, Nyree and Ems.

Naturally, we marked this milestone with 18 holes. Then we went home and he went back to Source… says it all!

From us both, many thanks for your unwavering commitment to Source and keeping the wheels turning so efficiently. Here’s to another decade with Source.

Ollie & Dave