It was pure persistence that led to David Boulton to recently celebrating 50 years at Orange Electrical Works (OEW).

The business, established in 1921, looked quite different to what it is today, not only in premise and structure, but as a 17-year-old just finishing fifth form, David saw becoming an apprentice at OEW quite a daunting experience, fast forward some time, today, David is the current Managing Director and Owner since 1995, with his wife Nerralie.

“I fronted up to the company, which was in Sale Street back then,” David explained, “I was in year 10, I walked in and said I wanted a job, they told me to go away and to come back next year… so I came back the next year and got an apprenticeship as an Electrical Apprentice.”

David explained his interview to gaining the job to be a pretty simple process, “Not a lot of questions were asked, though I did have my school certificate results to hand over. I had my three month trial and then signed onto my apprenticeship, I’ve still got that paperwork at home actually.”

“50 years, yeah, It’s pretty amazing,” David ponders, smiling.. “It makes me feel very old, it just happened so quickly really, you go to work every day, go home and do it all again. It’s just habit.

“I can still remember my first day in ‘71,” David recalled with a smile. “I was very nervous, and I swept the floor.. every day, that was my job. Like all first-year apprentices, though I was the only one in that particular year at the time.

“As time went on, I began fixing small appliances like irons and toasters, vacuum cleaners and kettles, which was a good place to start because they were pretty simple,” said David.

“I had a bit of an odd transition through the business, from small appliances, then to the radio room to then home repairs, then more technical stuff like lifts, escalators and commercial catering equipment. We would attempt to do whatever came along in those days. Even from the early 80s I spent part of my time doing part admin work so that just grew into more and more of it.”

Since 1971, as you can imagine, a lot in the business world has changed, “I think the biggest change is today we work more out in the field, back then a lot was brought into the workshop.

“The trade is also much more varied these days, there are so many facets to the electrical industry that you can specialise in.

“I’m proud of those that I have met in my 50 years being in the business, now-a-days the boys come back from a job and they say ‘Oh I was just out at your mates place’, that’s a regular occurrence,” David laughed.

“I think I’m most proud of just still being here and being in the position I’m in. There’s been some good times and some bad times, some long days and some not as long, but you’ve just got to work your way through it.

“They are a good group of fellas here and we’ve had some big jobs over the years, it’s just whatever comes along, if we can tackle it, we do.

“I’m thankful that the business has continued, we’ve worked hard to make it, but that’s what you do.”

David received a surprise celebration and cake from his team. Congratulations David. What a remarkable achievement.