Wayne Higgins Clocks Up 25 Years Of Service At Morris Lubricants

Wayne Higgins Clocks Up 25 Years Of Service At Morris Lubricants

Wayne Higgins is celebrating 25 years of service with Morris Lubricants, having joined the oil and lubricant manufacturer in 2001. Over the past quarter of a century, he has built extensive experience through a variety of roles across the business, developing a broad understanding of its operations and contributing to its continued success.

Originally recruited as a cleaner, he has worked on the filling line, in the warehouse, as a screen printer, and on export orders. Wayne is now working at the company’s Worldwide Distribution Centre at the Sentinel Trade Park in Shrewsbury. He is part of the diligent logistics team that prepares and loads Morris Lubricants’ products for dispatch around the world, including to Iraq where an incredible 250,000 litres of oil and lubricants is distributed every week.

Upon first joining the company, Wayne confessed that he mistakenly thought that Andrew Goddard, now the Executive Chairman of Morris Lubricants, was a shopfloor worker because he had his overalls on and was working alongside the rest of the team.

Both Andrew and his brother Edward Goddard, who is now Managing Director of Morris Leisure, Morris Lubricants’ sister company, started their working careers learning the ropes on the factory shopfloor, thereby gaining the respect of their workmates.

“I have a lot of time for the Goddard family because they treat us with a lot of respect which creates a comfortable workplace,” added Wayne. “It’s one of those places where, when you get up in the morning, you look forward to going to work.”

Rising demand for automotive and commercial vehicle products over the years has led to investment in the Worldwide Distribution Centre. This marks a major step forward for Morris Lubricants as the business continues to grow both in the UK and overseas. The Worldwide Distribution Centre has already transformed the company’s ability to store, manage and dispatch an increasingly diverse range of products that are ideal for a variety of cars, buses, coaches, lorries, trucks and boats, all while supporting safer operations and more reliable delivery performance.

The move to a larger distribution centre has been coupled with major efficiency improvements to the production facilities. These improvements include increasing blending capacity by 30% with the installation of a bulk blending tank which can manufacture up to 37,000 litres of product at once. This gives Morris Lubricants the ability to manufacture in large bulk quantities and means that products can be produced in a shorter timeframe.

These changes have led to Morris Lubricants being better equipped than ever to meet increasing demand and maintain the high standards expected by its customers. The business is well positioned to build on this achievement and continue to strengthen its supply chain for the future.

Wayne continues, “The company is much bigger now than when I started and I think it will continue to grow because they have a very good team in place and continue to invest in the business.”

Andrew Goddard said: “Wayne has been a fantastically loyal and versatile member of the team. One can only imagine how many pallets he has loaded into shipping containers for us over the years.  This is a real milestone, and we are delighted that Wayne continues to carry out his duties in an impeccable manner.”