DT Christmas Newsletter 2025

Michael Stephenson, James Wheatley and Danny Southby share some thoughts on a quartet of long-serving employees who retired in 2025 2025 was a year of some notable retirements UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

O ne of the company’s longest servers Mike Stewart retired in April after 43 years with the company, writes Michael Stephenson. Mike originally joined as a sales executive for our Manchester branch. After a couple of years he was promoted to manager of the Austrian department, later becoming branch manager. In 2013 he became a director and was appointed to the Board of Davies Turner Co Ltd.

In April, we said a heartfelt goodbye to Sue McGovern, our much-loved regional director, as she also retired from Davies Turner Air Cargo after more than 25 years of dedicated service. Sue’s journey with us began as sales manager in our Manchester office, where her talent and tenacity quickly shone through. She later took on the challenge of leading our operational team, becoming one of those rare individuals who excel across both sales and operations. In November 2019, Sue was promoted to regional director, and her leadership was instrumental in driving the success of the Northern Area. Throughout her career, Sue has tackled every challenge

Mike was brought up in the John Duke (his predecessor) school of buccaneering freight forwarding ” “

with grace and skill. Her unwavering focus on growth and her incredible sales acumen kept the “Northern Powerhouse” thriving. But beyond her professional achievements, Sue will be remembered most fondly as a wonderful colleague and friend. Sue’s presence is deeply missed, but her legacy lives on through the continued dedication and leadership of Lorna Adams and her team at Davies Turner Air Cargo Manchester, who now carry the torch forward. From all of us at Davies Turner, we hope Sue is having a joyful retirement filled with happiness, good health, and exciting new adventures.

Mike was brought up in the John Duke (his predecessor) school of buccaneering freight forwarding when Manchester was the most profitable branch, in those days run in a maverick style, with an emerging young group of thrusting go-getters including Alan Williams, Dave O’Brien and Jorgen Munch, who also all went on to do great things for the company. It is to Mike’s immense credit that he took over the baton so successfully, with Manchester continuing to prosper and remaining a very profitable branch. Valuable opinions I first got to know Mike in the early days of the start of our co-operation with Gebruder Weiss, when the Austrian service was by far the largest of our European services. Mike was a money maker in the best traditions, very strong on costing, and I always valued his opinion with his considerable experience of the ins and outs of freight forwarding. He was prepared to challenge his colleagues which I found particularly useful, as he often brought a different view to discussions. By the time he retired, the company Mike joined in 1982 had changed in all recognition and he was closely involved in the many developments. His career spanned a time of enormous change in how companies function from the more laissez faire culture of former days to the increasingly structured ways of current times. An ardent

Joe Mercer set to depart J oe Mercer has decided to retire at the end of December after a long innings in the freight forwarding industry, writes Michael Stephenson. Joe joined Davies Turner Dublin 22 years ago after working for a number of the largest freight forwarders in Ireland. This gave him wide experience of all modes of transport, air, ocean and road, as well as Customs.

Manchester United supporter he will be watching to see if the signs (at the time of writing) of a renaissance is for real.

This breadth of knowledge and experience is rare nowadays in this age of specialisation, but it is just what a smaller office needs and is why Joe has been so valuable to our Dublin of fi ce. I think Joe would agree that his first love (if you can call it this) is airfreight. He has been particularly successful in building relationships with Davies Turner’s partners around the world, who over the years have recognised his reliability, knowledge and speed of response to quotation and shipment information requests. His versatility and experience will be much missed. I know you all, and especially our Dublin office, will want to join me in wishing Joe a very happy and long retirement.

Sue McGovern – A fond farewell A s we reflect on the year and celebrate the festive season, we also take a moment to honour someone very special, writes James Wheatley.

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