News from Westin Drives

The great-grandson of the founder of Westin Drives visited us last week to see what his family had started nearly 100 years ago as an electric motor repair business.

Jorge Westin-Pearson, of Pearson Brothers, a high-quality engravers based in Halifax, was doing some marketing work when he came across our company and decided to get in touch.

He is the great grandson of Walter Stanley Westin, and the grandson of Walter's late son, Cyril, also a past employee at our firm, then named W S Westin.

We were delighted to welcome back this young member of the Westin family, and Jorge was impressed by his great grandfather's legacy.

"It was amazing," he said. "I had never visited the business before and I was really impressed at how they took the time to show me round."

Jorge was able to have a chat with Tony, our resident veteran, who has been with us for 45 years and who remembers Walter struggling to get in and out of his bright orange Rover. Tony was also able to tell Jorge other things he had not heard about Walter and Cyril.

We're sure Walter and Cyril would be proud to know of this connection to Westin nearly 100 years on – and we plan to keep the name of Westin alive for many more years in their memory.

​Westin Drives is helping to build the engineers of tomorrow with a record intake of new apprentices.
 
We're pleased that Adam Daffern, Jason Kilner, Nathan King and Liam Medley have joined our team. They now make up 25 per cent of our workforce. The story was carried in our local newspaper, the Huddersfield Examiner.
 
Adam works in the technical department while Liam works in the machining department. Both are former Greenhead College students. Jason, a repair engineer, was a sixth former at Shelley College and Nathan, a mechanical engineer, studied at Kirklees College.
 
All four continue to expand their knowledge and skills with part-time courses at the engineering department of Kirklees College. Nathan said: "I've always liked making things. I enjoyed art and graphics at school and I thought engineering would be an interesting job with good opportunities."
 
Michael Limb, service manager at Westin Drives, said: "Westin Drives has a keen interest in investing in the future of our business and want to ensure our staff develop the skills required to grow and succeed.

"We have identified a skills gap in our sector of the industry and are actively planning to future-proof our operation. To this end, we have taken on four apprentices across our departments and aim to equip them with the skills and experience they will need to help our business to thrive and prosper.

"We are proud to be deepening our relationship with Kirklees College, who are providing a wealth of expertise and support and from whom we regularly take students on work experience. We are also working closely with other providers as we look to progress the project."