A FAMILY firm is celebrating 45 years in business. Wilfred Gibbons set up Gibbons Engineering Group in 1969 to repair and rewind electric motors.

The electro-mechanical products and services company in Woodrolfe Road, Tollesbury, now employs 25 people and is run by his son, Martin, and grandson, Matthew.

Martin, the firm’s chairman, said: “My father was working for a company called Myson Fans. in Colchester, which has subsequently closed. When the company was downsized, they got rid of some people, including the rewinds department, but they still needed the work doing.

“My father got together with two people who had been made redundant and suggested the three of them do the rewinds for Myson Fans.”

Martin helped Wilfred form Gibbons Electric Motors, as it was then known, and it began trading out of “a little shed” in Woodrolfe Road, near its current site.

It expanded from rewinding motors to selling motors and progressed to pumps, panel building, drives and other products.

Martin returned to the company full-time in the early Nineties and his son Matthew worked his way up from apprentice to director and sales engineer.

“My philosophy is to keep re-investing profits back into the company,” said Martin. “I want this to be a strong, successful business – not just for me but for everyone who works here. I want everyone to have a good, secure and enjoyable job for the future.”