UK celebrates 100 years of history

UK celebrates 100 years of history

This year Prysmian Group is celebrating 100 years since the first UK factory at Southampton was inaugurated, back in 1914. At the Centenary launch event in January CEO Paul Atkinson announced a number of planned events including family open days at the four UK manufacturing sites. The first event was held at Bishopstoke site on Saturday 7th June, it was a great success with around 1,300 visitors on the day. In response to this great turn out Paul Atkinson said, “This event was a spectacular day. It was very well organised with something for everyone, and to have so many past, present and hopefully future employees and their families there was just incredible.”
The day featured activities for the whole family including a carousel, circus skills school, face painting, bouncy castles, driving simulator, rodeo bull, coconut shy and hook a duck to name a few. In addition there was a land train for people of all ages to tour the site. The Special Cable and Telecom Cable factories opened their doors for visitors to see how the specialist FP and optical fibre cables are manufactured as well as connectivity products.
A dedicated History Room gathered together many photographs showing people, machines and social activities through the years and also original documents and cable samples charting the business over this time. Artefacts included the ‘bog bike’, the bicycle used by workers to travel across the large site to visit the toilet. In addition the old fire engine from the Eastleigh factory sat gleaming in the sunshine. A sample of PLUTO was on show (the allied forces fuel pipeline manufactured at Southampton in 1944) and some early hand written factory account ledgers from the 1920s showed us that detail has always been important to the business.
The local MP for Eastleigh, Mike Thornton and The Right Honourable Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, attended the open day. Both were pleased to meet employees and learn more about the Company and its long standing position in the local community.
Rain, thunder and lightning was forecast on the day but that all subsided and the sun was shining in time for current, former and retired employees and their families to come through the gates and celebrate as friends.