Celebrating Keith Bradford's 40 years of service helping save lives at sea

by Wescom Group 27 Aug 08:26 NZST

Wescom Group's Marine Product and Customer Services Manager Keith Bradford celebrated 40 years of working within a business that helps saves lives at sea, being presented with a personalised pack of pyrotechnics and cutting a cake with a traditional Wilkinson Sword.

An advert in Marketing Week magazine back in 1985 saw a young Keith Bradford apply for the role of Marine Product Manager at Pains Wessex, the world's leading pyrotechnics manufacturer. Having already supplemented his degree with a post graduate qualification in marketing, and with experience gained as a Ship's Agent and then as a Marketing Executive, Keith was offered the role at High Post in Salisbury, starting his lifelong career in marine safety products, progressing to Marketing Manager of Safety Products, to Sales and Marketing Manager, then Product Manager under the new owners Chemring Group and latterly Product and Customer Services Manager at Wescom Group.

One of Keith's main roles throughout his 40-year career has been to support worldwide sales and distribution of marine safety products, working with long-term international distributors, many of whom have become like family due to their long-standing allegiance to Pains Wessex, Comet, and Wescom Group's products and services. As Marketing Manager, it fell to Keith to organise the annual awards for sales achievement - usually presented at METS - and for the winning distributor to be presented with a Wilkinson Sword, a reminder of the early days when Pains Wessex was owned by a Group including Wilkinson. "Being required to transport celebratory swords internationally was often a challenge," recalls Keith, "but the biggest failure was being unable to deliver a distributor's award-winning sword to - of all places - Japan!" Other roles Keith has managed include working with R&D, on new product development, obtaining international type approvals, producing data sheets and multi-language labels, budgeting, stock ordering and control and overseeing internal and external teams including PR services.

As the head of customer support and services, Keith is well-known throughout the industry, and sits on international committees representing the marine safety sector and works with leading safety organisations such as the RNLI. He says, "I have been privileged to work with the world's best marine safety and life-saving products. Having the right product in the right place at the right time is paramount. If a ship cannot obtain the correct Line Thrower or Man Overboard device in time and is delayed from sailing, that costs a fortune, so having the world's best distribution and sales network to supply them is vital."

He concludes: "I have been blessed to have a job I still enjoy with a world-leader in what we do, with so many amazing colleagues worldwide. Working for a company that contributes to saving lives in emergency situations at sea worldwide is incredibly fulfilling."