Here’s cheers to Ramsey Bros’ longest serving employee, Eddy Ward, who celebrated 52 years this week! At the risk of getting in trouble with the notoriously humble Director, we chatted to Managing Director and his son, Mark Ward, about just what Eddy’s leadership has meant to the Ramsey Bros family.
“Eddy’s of an era that’s worked long hours to create, maintain, build and, at times, to just survive in business. He hasn’t done it alone, but his leadership has greatly attributed to the overall success of Ramsey Bros and that’s something that we all admire,— says Mark.
When Eddy’s Father-In-Law and Ramsey Bros Founder Lloyd Ramsey lost his life in a car accident, Eddy stepped up to the plate at the age of 40 to continue the Ramsey Bros story — he’s since become one of the most respected people in the industry.
“Eddy’s always been extremely fair in his dealings and he has the respect of the staff, farmers, our franchise partners and the community. He’s someone that I can talk to about the business and he understands what needs to be done as invariably he has done it before,— Mark says.
“As a kid, I always admired what Dad did and I wanted to work for Ramsey Bros. Of course, like any family member I had to do other things first, so I headed off and got a background in banking,— Mark recalls.
“An opportunity finally came for me to join the business in 2000 and I spent a lot of time working closely with Dad and learning the ropes. One of the jobs involved going out on the block in Cleve and consolidating all the stock numbers, safety information and descriptions for the used machinery.
“After carefully checking everything, I came back in and told Eddy I had a problem. There was a piece of machinery with the stock number NM123 (indicating it was brand new) which I assumed had been incorrectly labelled. To my surprise, Eddy was pretty cagey about the unit as it was one of many ordered new to sell to the farmers, but it was taking some time to sell — a lot of time, in fact.
“It was a John Shearer Fieldspan Mark 3 and had been waiting for sale for a long 13 years — and not because there wasn’t any interest — but because Eddy refused to take an offer lower than what he thought it was worth,— Mark recalls.
“It had never been used but had been sitting there in the open weather for years. It became a real bugbear for Eddy who hung on with an iron grip — we all started to think that one day we’d have to bury him with it,— Mark chuckles.
“Eddy declined an offer for about $4,000 some years earlier, but finally, on 25 June 2003, a long 13 years down the track, he conceded and finally sold it for $2,600.
“To this day, whenever we have a used unit on the block for a number of years and anyone questions why we still have it, the story of NM123 comes up and we have a good laugh at how much it sums up Eddy’s determination.
“He’s the longest serving employee and at 77 years of age, he’s still going strong. To be honest, I can’t see him retiring and couldn’t imagine him ever having done anything else. We’re all very proud of what Eddy’s achieved and although he doesn’t want accolades, it’s nice to say out loud just what he means to everyone here.— Congratulations Eddy on 52 incredible years — your drive, determination and commitment has paved the way for Ramsey Bros to become what it is today!