An employee at Suffolk-based flavour and fragrance ingredients manufacturer Treatt has been recognised for completing 40 years’ service with the company.

Steve Coombes joined the Bury St Edmunds firm at the age of 19 as a shipping clerk and has since moved on to roles including imports/exports team leader and now customer liaison officer in shipping.

He had left school at 15, when his family lived in London, and got a taste for shipping in his first job working as a junior clerk which involved delivering documents to shipping lines in and around the capital.

“After my first month at Treatt, I was asked by my old company in London to go back to work for them and as I was finding it difficult settling into a new area I did consider it”, Steve remembers. “However in the end I stayed put and I’m very glad I did.”

Steve says he has never looked back and that although he has seen many changes at Treatt, probably the biggest is how much the company has grown. “The company is really doing well”, Steve adds, “it’s a great place to work.”

Steve’s wife, Sue, who he met at work while playing table tennis in the canteen at lunchtimes, also still works for the company. She first joined the accounts department in 1983 and now works in sales.

Daemmon Reeve, group chief executive at Treatt, said: “Today, it’s quite extraordinary for someone to have been working in the same organisation for 40 years. It shows loyalty and a strong sense of belonging and it makes me very proud to hear how much Steve enjoys working here.

“I, along with my colleagues, would like to take this opportunity to thank Steve for his commitment to Treatt and hard work.”