Berwick man retires after 41 years' service at Simpsons Malt

He worked at the company for 41 years, most recently as raw materials buyer.

After graduating with a degree in Sports Science from Northumbria University, Mike joined Simpsons Malt in May 1983 initially for that year’s harvest, working on the barley intake weighbridge with the hope of earning enough money to join friends who had travelled to South Africa.

During those months, he recalled chairman Simon Simpson approaching him with a catalogue seeking advice on which sports trainers to buy for his son, Peter, which proved to be the first and only time he’d put the degree he’d gained to good use!

Once harvest was over, Simon offered Mike a job as a trainee supervisor at the maltings but, with an agricultural background and McCreath Simpson & Prentice (MSP) having recently been founded by David McCreath, Mike asked if there were any opportunities at MSP.

He was taken on by David as a grain trader in November 1983 – putting the trip to South Africa on hold indefinitely.

At that time, he was part of a small team trading all combinable crops each year for MSP.

Although the majority of this was malting barley trading, in those days it was a spot market where merchants bought and sold for the best price, so the malting barley wouldn’t necessarily always be destined for Simpsons Malt.

However, at the turn of the century, Simon and David agreed that Simpsons Malt would use MSP as its primary source of malting barley purchases and, in the years that followed, Mike began to work closely with raw materials buyer for Simpsons Malt, Trevor Wright, as the businesses became gradually more integrated.

When Trevor retired in 2011, Mike assumed the role of raw materials buyer, heading up a grain trading department that has continued to grow.

When Mike started, Simpsons Malt was purchasing 85,000 to 90,000 tonnes of malting barley per year and today this is more than 300,000 tonnes per year, all of which is purchased on contract – a notable change from the spot purchasing of much of his career.

Mike said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working at Simpsons Malt Limited and in seeing how both businesses have integrated and then grown, to be a very small part in that evolution – especially with it being an independent, family business – has been very rewarding.

“I’d just like to say a big thank you to all the colleagues who I have worked alongside over the past 41 years, with a special mention to the grain trading department, which I’m sure will continue to go from strength to strength in the years ahead.”

Tim McCreath, managing director at Simpsons Malt, added: “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mike for his 41 years of dedicated service.

“People like Mike have helped to make our fifth-generation, family business what it is today and although his wealth of industry knowledge and expertise will be greatly missed, we are grateful for the time he has spent with us and the contributions he has made.

“On behalf of us all here at Simpsons Malt Limited, we’d like to wish Mike a long, happy and healthy retirement.”