Pool man's half a century in the paper business (From Ilkley Gazette)

Pool man's half a century in the paper business

12:00pm Saturday 12th January 2013 in Local news By Jim Jack

A Pool-in-Wharfedale manager had double cause for celebration on New Year’s Eve – as it marked his 50th year with paper manufacturer Weidmann Whiteley.

Mike Gosling was just a teenager when he started with the firm, formerly B S & W Whiteley Ltd, at Pool Paper Mills in December, 1962.

The 65-year-old began as a laboratory worker on a basic 40 hours a week, plus 14 hours’ overtime – a contract that did not include any sick pay.

But by 1974 he was working as a laboratory technician on more than £2,000 a year. He quickly became the senior laboratory assistant and had risen to the role of technical supervisor by the time the company became part of the Weidmann Group – which supplies electrical transformer insulation components around the world – in 1981.

Mr Gosling was made quality manager of the paper mill four years later, taking on the responsibility for training process staff, and shortly afterwards was also appointed technical manager.

In 2004 he acquired a further role as product manager for cotton and began a special focus on Whiteley’s cotton products.

Whiteley is a niche provider of paper manufactured from denim, wool and linen.

For the last two years Mr Gosling has been helping with the commissioning of a new paper mill for a Weidmann company in the USA.

But this year he will return to his primary role in Pool, which includes undertaking sales field work for the cotton products Whiteley supplies to companies in the UK, Europe, America and Japan.