Member Article

Double Silver Service for two employees at Leeds firm Austin Hayes

Steve Carter and Steve Graves painted the town ‘blue and yellow’ this week as they celebrated 25 years service at specialist surface coatings company, Austin Hayes.

Steve Carter is a Senior Technician and one of the country’s most experienced thermal arc metal sprayers. He specialises in applying molten alloy coatings, spraying metals at more than 600 degrees Celsius.

Production Director, Steve Graves, joined the company on a Youth Training Scheme (YTS). After 18 years he was appointed as a Director of the company and now oversees production of over 500,000 ammunition containers each year, managing a team of over 120 people.

Nik Vjestica, Managing Director for Austin Hayes, who has worked alongside both employees since hiring them in 1988, said: “Both Steves are outstanding employees and essential to the smooth running of the company. We are incredibly happy to have had the pleasure of working with them for so long.

“Steve Graves, our Production Director, now oversees a £6m portfolio for the company, focusing on ammunition containers for the defence industry. His attention to detail, delivering work on time and to the right quality is unsurpassed.

Steve Carter, as Senior Technician, is a key member of our surface coatings team that apply advanced epoxy coating systems on engineering equipment for One Subsea, another long-standing and successful local company.

Steve Carter and Steve Graves received their long service awards at a special celebration at Elland Road this Saturday (23rd November) after a VIP tour of the stadium and hospitality in the Company’s Level 4 Box, followed by watching the Leeds-Middlesbrough game.

Nik added: “We’re all big Leeds United fans. It seemed fitting to reward Steve and Steve with a chance to see their favourite team in action, as we get to work together as a team every day.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Julia Ruane .