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5 0 Y E A R S I N T H E I N D U S T RY
STAFFORD FORD: THIS IS YOUR LIFE
PHIL LO
GAN
WITH A CAREER IN OUR TRADE SPANNING BACK TO 1959, STAFFORD FORD MUST BE ONE OF THE INDUSTRY’S
BEST LOVED CHARACTERS. IT WAS 1959 WHEN A VERY YOUNG STAFFORD STARTED WORK AT A CHEMISTS IN
“50 years
! Did he st
art as a
SCUNTHORPE, WHERE HE QUICKLY FOUND HIS WAY TO THE PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION.
Saturday
boy in Dix
ons?! I firs
t
HE WENT ON TO MANAGE A STRING OF THEIR SHOPS BY THE TENDER AGE OF 21. FROM THERE, HE WENT ON
came acro
ss him in 1
993 when
TO WORK FOR THORNE, INTROPHOTO AND ORION, BEFORE HIS MOVE TO VANGUARD (THEN TRADING AS
he was wo
rking for V
anguard.
GUARDFORCE) AND MOST RECENTLY TO WORLD RICHMAN, WHERE HE STILL WORKS TODAY!
Stafford is
certainly
a legend i
n
PIXEL CATCHES UP WITH SOME OF HIS COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS TO CELEBRATE HIS HALF-CENTURY IN THE
his own p
int glass! A
hard
WORLD OF IMAGING RETAIL.
working, c
ommitted,
totally
dependab
le individu
al with wh
om
it has been
an educa
tion and a
privilege t
o work wi
th over the
JOHN
OLIVER past 16 yea
rs.”
over the so
unds of th
e cars.
“I first met
Staff whe
n he joine
d
“Staff soon
became S
ales
my compa
ny, Enterp
rise, in 19
77.
Manager,
leading th
e young te
am
He came w
ith Ron Pri
or from th
e
with much
enthusias
m and vig
our.
Wotan co
mpany. W
e had a re
ally
He always
appeared
at
lively grou
p then inc
luding suc
h
Photokina
, and ther
e was one
MAC
B
‘stars’ as M
ike O’Reil
ly and
memorabl
e night (w
hen we we
re
ILLS
Rodney Ba
tes, both o
f whom
sharing a
bedroom
at the
“I first mee
t Staff whe
n he joine
d Intro
moved on
to stay in
the industr
y.
Kunibert H
otel) when
I was bein
g in 1980. I had
only been
there a fe
w
Staff alwa
ys had a v
ery gentle
pursued b
y the buxo
m hausfra
u, months and he b
ecame my
boss, but
sense of h
umour and
was well
when Staf
f saved my
life when
also a frie
nd and we
have rem
ained
liked by cu
stomers an
d
she bange
d on our d
oor he
good frien
ds ever sin
ce.
colleagues
.
answered
“Herr Oliv
er ist nicht
In the earl
y days at
Intro Norm
an
“We had
many enjo
yable time
s
hier” seve
ral times u
ntil she we
nt was going to hav
e one of h
is usual
together, p
articularly
with Ronn
ie
away!
clear outs
and if it ha
d not been
for
Prior. I can
see them
now, on a
“Happy d
ays! I do n
ot see him
Staff seein
g somethin
g in me I h
ad
small go-c
art track a
t
very often
these day
s, but I ha
ve been a goner, an
d maybe o
ut of the
Christchur
ch, racing
each othe
r
fond mem
ories!”
trade. So
whatever
happened
to me in
with gales
of laughte
r coming
the last 29
years I ha
ve staff to
thank
for, includ
ing the be
er belly!”
IAN KENDR
ICK
TERRY
CAREY
“I first met Staffo
rd at Dixons’
at Guardforce. W
e did a number
(very) old Edgew
are offices when
I
of different prod
ucts with him on
“I have kn
own Staff,
man & bo
y, was a fresh
faced (OK, it wa
s a
OEM bags/tripo
ds and, later on,
for over 4
2 years. H
e called on long time ago!) Photo Buyer. I
f my
binos. I will forev
er remember the
the photo
shop I wor
ked in as a memory serves me (and some
times
visit to the new G
uardforce binos
boy of 16
and Staff
was the r
ep it doesn't) he w
as working at factory with Staff, Phil Logan an
d
for Wotan
Lamps. Si
nce then w
e Introphoto a
t the time with Clive Daley. They kitted us ou
t
have neve
r lost touch
and have Norman. We bought a small with plastic shoe covers to m
ake
achieved s
ignificant
business range of accessories from them
at
sure we didn't co
ntaminate the
between u
s with ma
ny differen
t the time and
I can remember clean room environment whe
re
companie
s and rece
ntly great Stafford's gruff no nonsense the binos where being made.
success wi
th Kodak G
ear Bags approach made an impress
ion on
Except it wasn't v
ery clean as all
through Ti
ffen. We h
ave also me. the windows were open beca
use
shared a f
ew beers i
n many Shortly after I moved over to th
e
the aircon wasn'
t working!
countries a
round the
world ove
r TV side of th
e business and lo
st
"I met up with hi
m at shows and
the years a
nd have tr
avelled track of Staff until a few year
s
on trips over the
years and he stil
l
together in
to China a
nd watche
d later I found
myself out in Ho
ng
enjoys a beer an
d a curry
the Rugby
World Cu
p in a bar
in Kong looking
after amongst ot
her
whenever the op
portunity
Hong Kon
g. He is on
e of only a things the Dixons OEM camer
a
presents itself. A
fter a while he
few treasu
red indust
ry friends
that and binocular
business, which fancied a change and I was ve
ry
remain an
d, as Chri
s Swain us
ed back in the da
y was not pleased to be able to introduce
to say, Sta
ff is a true
mate!” inconsiderable! Staff to David Huang at World
”I met up with St
afford again, wh
o
Richman. The res
t, as they say, is
was now workin
g with Annie Lee history…"
020 PIXEL
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