Insights
Crystaltech Honours
Long-Service
Employees
Crystaltech, one of the companies at the forefront of warewashing installation and maintenance in the UK, is proud to honour its long serving employees. There are currently ten staff with 20 or more years’ service and of those, five have been with the company for over 25 years, including one engineer who is about to clock up his 30th year!
MD Derek Maher attributes good staff retention to being a family business where both he and his wife, who run the business together, are approachable, “We are passionate about what we do at Crystaltech and ensure all our staff feel they can talk to us 7 days a week – and they do. Easy dialogue with employees is crucial in this industry as our 60 plus engineers work out of the office across all regions of the UK and are on call for our customers 24/7 all year round.”
Part of Crystaltech’s success in managing its remote team is an annual week-long tour, where Derek and his wife Maxine set up area meetings with groups of engineers. “These meetings are ideal opportunities for engineers to be able to talk to us face to face about any issues and we carry out health & safety checks, provide an update on the company’s performance, check installations and warranties, carry out eye site checks and ensure all equipment is working and up to date,” commented Maher.
Maher first began fixing warewashing machines in local pubs and restaurants and in 1980 founded Crystaltech, running the business from his garage as the firm’s only employee. Three decades on and the company is the largest independent provider specialising in the installation and maintenance of all makes and models of warewashing machine across the whole of the UK.
Maher has been a pioneer in attaining superior glass and dish washer machine results in the catering and pub industry for over 38 years. He has led the way for many of the leading pub companies he works with to achieve award winning clean glass results throughout their estates. Through investing in innovative technology and high levels of training, Derek has enabled his team of engineers to be able to solve the most obscure warewashing problems. A recent investment to add an additional £285k worth of van stocks for specific manufacturers has also significantly increased first time fix rates and reduced the need for second visits.
With investment in equipment and personnel and an increase in new clients, the business has developed over the last year with a growth of 45% in turnover and takes approximately 4,000 service visits per month with a constantly expanding team of just over 60 engineers who are all fully qualified and hold all relevant accreditations and who Maher hopes will be with him for many years to come.