Morson Group has been celebrating 50 years in business in 2019. As part of our celebrations, we’ve created a book about the business; its foundations, its growth and its people.
We’ve been releasing excerpts from the book - in our tenth and final part, we mark our 50th birthday in style and continue our commitment to the local community.
A Year of Giving
In 2019, Morson officially celebrated 50 years in business. Throughout the year, we’ve raised over £XXX for our two core charity partners for the year, ABF The Soldier’s Charity and Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Key events throughout the year included a charity bike ride, an abseil down Morson head office and a baking competition.
As well as the core Morson charity activity, we also embarked on a special programme of giving to mark this landmark with our 50 Weeks of Giving series. This saw us donate a cash sum to a charity or organisation every week within the local area for 50 weeks, ranging from hospitals and care homes for the elderly to schools and helping the homeless.
A Day of Celebration
As the headline event of the year of celebration, we held a huge party for all employees.
The party took place at Gawsworth Hall, a Tudor manor house that dates back to 1480, with over 800 employees in attendance and a guest list that included legendary former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, Mancunian boxing legend Ricky Hatton and artist Harold Riley, with performances from well-known musicians.
The afternoon celebrated Morson’s founding in 1969 through to the present day, with both current employees and past long-servers invited to celebrate the story.
After afternoon tea on the lawns, employees from throughout Morson’s 50 years in business were entertained by live music from Hatty Keane, Totally Take That, the ‘People’s Tenor’ Russell Watson, and Heather Small of M People.
Morson’s relationship with the local area of Salford and Greater Manchester is something that was highlighted during the celebrations with a poignant reading by legendary Manchester poet Tony Walsh and a video charting the story of the business from its earliest days via charity, community, sport and a tribute to founder Gerry.
CEO Ged Mason delivered a speech that highlighted the importance of people and employees within the Morson story:
“The journey to our success and contribution has been without question driven and attained by all the loyal colleagues past and present with whom I have had the pleasure of working with over the many decades and it is a great honour to skipper the ship. This includes every part of the Morson family structure and I want to thank all the teams that keep this important business going day in day out. A massive personal thank you and I salute you all.”
He also touched on the future of the business:
“Looking to the future and the next decade you have all played a huge part. However what got us here won’t keep us here. We are keen to stay at the forefront and to embrace technology moving with the times and manage to the best we can, adapting to change yet never forgetting Morson’s DNA and core values that we live by and act on. We must continue and protect these values as they are timeless and are the solid foundation upon which this magnificent company was built. We have also assembled a great team for the future. We are Morson.”
50 Not Out
We’d like to thank all of our friends, employees, clients, contractors and partners for an incredible 50 years. It’s been a great ride and one we’re looking forward to continuing into the next 50 years and the new challenges we will face along the way.
