Facilities coordinator, Peter recalls his time at Enotria so far, as he celebrates his 40th year with us.

I was a very young man when I started with Enotria April 12th, 1985. Despite my age, it was clear from day one, that this was a different business. I’d had one small job before this and left because I couldn’t stand the managers behaviour, so Enotria was a breath of fresh air. All that I met over those first few days were kind, considerate and accommodating. As I progressed through the early years, from delivery assistant to warehouse (bottle store/cellar you would call it now), to Warehouse / Bond supervisor and now to my new adventure in Facilities. I learnt to take everything I did with as much pride as I could, no matter what that job was, or how I felt sometimes when things haven’t gone to plan, I continued, and still do. I remember delivering to our regular customers, week in week out and these small family run Italian restaurant and deli businesses knew us by our names and always greeted us. One notable experience for me was when we had one last drop before we headed back to Chandos Road (old Enotria site) We were delivering to the Italian Continental stores in Maidenhead (still there to this day). We brought in the wine as usual placed in the storeroom. My self and Robin Box my driver at the time (still in contact by the way) were approached by Angelo (if my memory serves me right).Forcefully he said ‘go to the canteen!’ once inside, a table was laid with all the most delicious homemade Italian food you could think of, Angelo then insisted we sit, after a few ‘no, that’s very kind of you’ remarks from Robin we were told SIT! Although I only had met a handful of the 15 or so persons at that table it is one of the most memorable occasions for me. We had a great time, no alcohol consumed.

This is one of the things that sicks with me, Remo had really created something special. I expressed this with Remo years later, just before he retired, we had a brief discussion on general things as he was preparing for his speech for the Xmas party. We talked about how everyone was, new Ferraris which he often purchased, but then we started to talk about the people in the business, and I made a remark and said I never hear complaints, only good things. I went on to say do you realise what you have created here, how people I talk to anyway, feel privileged, everyone is happy, everyone says ‘hello how are you’ and positive things. He looked at me opening his eyes and said ‘you have just given me a last-minute job’. I was puzzled by this, but Remo explained ‘I never really knew how deep my responsibility was, or how people felt.’ He then thanked me, and said ‘I now need to go and change my speech for the party.’  Which he did and he explained to all at the party that he was talking to me, in brief and then felt he needed to express how he felt about his people, and that he hadn’t realised how great Enotria is, yes, he knew it was a successful business but not about how we felt. People were naturally drawn to Enotria and stayed, I’m living proof along with Sergio De Luca (Director of Buying – Italy – 40 years with Enotria) and many others. Time has passed, when it’s in your blood, its in your blood some may say but, for me it is the great warmth of belonging that Enotira exudes that makes it the successful business it is today and continues to be. At Remo Nardone’s funeral this heart felt feeling was expressed again about his responsibility for his people in his son’s farewell speech, and again by his wife later that afternoon.