Drew retires from Mansfield business after 54 remarkable years
In the early 1970s, a 16-year-old lad walked through the doors of Mansfield’s Jephsons Shopfitters for the very first time, tools in hand and his whole working life ahead of him.
That lad was Drew McGeachie. Fifty-four years on, on 3rd September, he will finish his final day on the tools at the Maun Way business and begin a very well-earned retirement.
To put that into perspective, Drew joined Jephsons at a time when Britain's high streets looked completely different. Shops were smaller, materials were heavier, and almost every job was done by hand.
Since then, he has seen the industry reinvent itself many times over. Tools have gone cordless, technology has crept onto every site, materials have modernised, and shopfronts have been ripped out and replaced right across the country. Through every one of those changes, Drew has quietly turned up, done outstanding work, and helped shape countless projects along the way.
Jephsons has always been a family-run business, and one of the great pleasures of that has been watching people build proper, long careers here. Over the years the company has been proud to celebrate many long-service milestones with members of the team. Even so, 54 years is something else entirely, and it has genuinely amazed everyone at Jephsons.
Wayne Stringfellow, Sales and Marketing Director for the company said: "Drew is a real credit to himself and, we hope, in some small way to the sort of company we've tried to be over the years. As a family-run business, we take a lot of pride in the long careers people have built with us, but 54 years is something we honestly never imagined we'd be celebrating.
"It says everything about the man himself: hard-working, hugely skilled, loyal to the core, and blessed with a sense of humour that has kept sites cheerful for decades. We feel very lucky to have had him with us for so much of our history."
Colleagues describe Drew as the kind of workmate you always hoped would be on your crew, generous with his knowledge, quick with a joke, and the safe pair of hands you wanted on the trickiest jobs. Younger tradesmen coming up through the industry have learned an enormous amount from him, simply by working at his side.
Now, with the tools finally down, Drew's plans reportedly involve rather more time behind the wheel of his motorhome, with plenty of trips already on the horizon.
Everyone at Jephsons Shopfitters has wished him a long, happy and very well-deserved retirement.