"It was colossal. It was huge. It took your breath away"

WHEN Mike and Ann Waterworth retired from Nestl Rowntree last week, they took with them experience totalling 83 years.

Mike, with 42 years at the factory, and Ann, with 41, have seen huge changes at what they first knew as Rowntree's, before it became Rowntree Mackintosh and then part of Nestl's global empire.

Retirement brings to an end a three-generational family connection for Mike. His grandfather worked at the confectionery works, as did his dad, straight from school at the age of 14 for 49 years. "He used to make and repair all the wire guards for the machinery all over the factory," explained Mike.

When he left Burnholme Secondary School, Mike went to York Technical College to study electrical engineering. In those days school leavers were looking for apprenticeships, and many of his friends secured places with the railways or Terry's.

Mike managed to land an electrician's apprenticeship at Rowntree's, "one of the most sought-after in York". The engineering manager who took him on, George Lickley, had prophetic counsel for the young man. "His words were, 'you do realise of course young man you have just been given a job for life?' I can remember that as plain as day."

Mike was 16 years and three months old when he joined in 1962, and was sent to Rowntree's Day Continuation School in Aldwark to learn the trade.

On his first day he had to clock on at 9.30am. It was certainly on a different scale from school: with 14,000 employees, Rowntree's was practically a town within a town.

"It was colossal. It was huge. It took your breath away.

"Railway track virtually surrounded the entire site."

There were marshalling yards where raw ingredients arrived and the finished product was sent out.

After a day getting his bearings, finally it was time for Mike go home.

"The buzzers went at five o'clock and that was it. For the next ten minutes there were people walking off the site.

"It was like watching ants coming out of the factory. York city police actually sent two policemen down every night to direct the traffic."

Buses were parked outside the front of the Haxby Road entrance, their destinations marked on the front: Acomb East; Acomb West; Bishopthorpe North; Bishopthorpe South...

Ann's family had no connection with Rowntree's. Her father was a farmer. But she was determined to join the factory.

"If you wanted to go into business, it was Rowntree's. I have only applied for this one job in my life.

"I was assigned to sales and I have been there ever since."

She also went to Day Continuation School every day until she was 18 learning business studies and everything to do with office work.

Ann's first day at Rowntree's is still vivid in her memory. "I was frightened. I wasn't going to stay.

"My first impression was the main corridor being ever so long, and that I was never going to get to the end."

Ann started in August, and she remembered the powerful smell of strawberries, delivered for use in chocolate assortments.

"After about a month I met lots of new people and made lots of friends. I settled down fairly quickly."

Rowntree's encouraged socialising. The factory would show a film at the theatre, divided into five parts, one for each weekday lunchtime.

Back then, office staff had an hour-and-a-half break, others one hour. A lot of people didn't want to leave the factory over lunch, so on-site recreations were devised.

"Each department had its own social club, with leagues for darts and dominoes," said Mike.

Ann recalled: "There was a big sports side: football, netball for us. The car parks at Haxby Road used to be tennis courts."

Sometimes factory friendship went further. Mike spotted Ann before she noticed him.

"I was up a ladder in one of the main corridors at the time," Mike recalls. "The girls in the office all went for lunch at the same time in those days, passing the spot where I was working on their way out. I'd seen Ann a few of times but was always too nervous to say hello.

"When I finally plucked up the courage to ask her out I nearly fell off the ladder in my race to get to her when I saw her passing."

"He started smiling, and we got to say hello and eventually he came down from the ladder," said Ann. "I remember thinking, 'he's quite nice'."

They went on their first date on November 28, 1967. The Cat's Whiskers club in Fishergate and the Londesborough Arms on Petergate, run by Babs Fletcher, were two of their favourites.

"What was that horrible pub you took me to?" Ann asks. "The Market Tavern, Coppergate. I had suede shoes on the hard floor and it was running with beer."

The couple married in April 1969.

Mike has carried out many important jobs for Rowntree's during his long career. At one point he was responsible for machinery maintenance.

Eleven years ago he was appointed production manager on No 5 KitKat line, installed for £28 million. It produced multipacks of the two-finger KitKats.

Later he moved to the No 4 line, which is capable of producing 40 tons of four-finger bars in eight hours - 2,300 a minute. In one record-breaking week they made 965 tons.

More recently, as engineering manager, Mike oversaw the project to move Milky Bar Production to York from Hayes, Middlesex.

Ann worked as a field sales co-ordinator, organising a sales force operating throughout the country. Both say the biggest change in their time at Rowntree's has been the technology: "They used to put the swirls on by hand," Mike said. "It was very, very labour intensive in those days."

Today it is a truly international place to work. "When we joined we were expected to stop at York," said Mike, 58. "If you come to Nestl now and want to progress you can see the world."

Ann, 56, adds: "We get lots of people coming here from France, Japan: there's an international flavour in the place."

The couple feel it is the right time to go. "We have thoroughly enjoyed it. We think this is the time to move on. We have no plans at all," said Ann.

"It's going to be a wrench. I wish the company well and good luck to all our colleagues."

Updated: 09:21 Monday, December 27, 2004