Mike Perry retires at 77

Dublin-born Mr Perry had a number of sales jobs and a spell teaching English in Spain before he joined James Latham in 1972. His role was in sales, focusing largely on Douglas fir. In 1978 he joined Hunter Plywood, where he remained until 1990, by which time he had been appointed sales director.

“I was then headhunted by Firwood Timber & Plywood in Liverpool,” said Mr Perry. “They were the biggest suppliers of Douglas fir formwork at the time and they recruited me because that’s where my experience was.”

He handled Firwood’s formwork sales in the south of England until the end of his three-year contract in 1993, which unfortunately coincided with a downturn in the economy and, as a consequence he was made redundant.

After a couple of short spells with other timber companies, a customer suggested he set up his own timber importing business and he established Standons Ltd in Hertfordshire in 1995. Initially importing from Canada, Chile and Russia, eventually Standons distributed timber from Glennon Brothers’ Scottish mills and Pontrilas Sawmills in Herefordshire, with the majority of the home-grown timber being used for formwork.

“I stayed with formwork and reached a turnover of £4m at one stage,” said Mr Perry. “But every year traditional formwork is being replaced by big systems offered by companies such asDoka, SGB, Skydeck and Peri and this put a bit of pressure on my business.”

Following the death of his wife last August and his two daughters’ request that he “give it up, do a bit of living, play more golf”, he decided to retire and the last load left Standons on May 15.

“Ironically I gave it up and can’t even go outside the door,” said Mr Perry, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic. “But that will change and I will play golf and visit friends around the country and in Spain.”

He has seen many changes during his almost half-century in the timber trade, the biggest of which, he said, is the increase in the use of technology.

“When I joined in 1972 and for the next 20 years it was about sales relationships and loyalty and talking to people, whereas now it’s all done on a machine and you don’t talk to anyone. Technology has been a great benefit to the trade but I’m afraid it’s a sorry loss too, because life is about people.”