The Annual Coinadrink Long-Service Dinner. (We’re Going To Need A Bigger Table…)
Remember what Roy Schneider’s character, Brody, said in the movie, Jaws when he first saw that Great White shark? He said: ‘we’re gonna need a bigger boat’ and because the list of eligible attendees for our annual Long Service Dinner is getting longer, we’re gonna need a bigger table!
It’s an annual tradition at Coinadrink that, in the run-up to Christmas, those of our employees with ‘long service’ are invited to join Roger for a celebratory knees-up. The bar for qualification to this august event stands at 25 years and what started as a low key, everybody-in-one-taxi occasion years ago, has blossomed into one of the events of the social calendar.
So much so that this year, 14 employees (and their better halves), will join Roger and Yvonne at the Fairlawns Hotel in Aldridge.
And it’s not just dinner: our guests are invited to stay overnight at the company’s expense or, if they prefer, we pick up the tab for a to-and-fro taxi ride. The bill for ‘the do’ keeps on rising, but The Boss is certain it’s worth it.
‘There are two more to add to our long-service list this year’, Roger Williams said, ‘and the fact that we have so many people who have served the company for such a long time is a real source of satisfaction to me.’
Never mind ‘a bigger table’ – if this trend continues, we’ll have to consider block-booking the entire hotel!
‘We’ve always tried to be a good employer rather than just a fair employer and personally, I believe that if you expect your staff to look after your customers then you in turn have to look after your staff’, Roger said. ‘Stability in a business, particularly one in which many of the staff are field based, is vitally important, as it creates a lasting impression on customers.’
‘I was proud to tell him that at Coinadrink, loyalty works both ways.’
As is often the case with The Boss, his comments concluded with an anecdote: ‘We had a customer who chose to leave us some years ago and when he returned to the fold recently he was surprised to discover the same familiar faces returning to his premises and getting on with it as if they’d never been away. I was proud to tell him that at Coinadrink, loyalty works both ways and that’s why we have the benefit of experienced, expert staff who have seen it all, done it all and got the T shirt.’
So there you have it. We don’t do ‘here today and gone tomorrow’. You can count on us to deliver long into the future. And finally, if you’re out and about on the evening of 21 November, and you find yourself in the vicinity of Aldridge, you might decide to steer clear of Fairlawns…
You have been warned!
And finally, if you’ve a few seconds to spare and you’d like to relive one of the most famous lines in movie history, be our guest…
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