Four Generations and 67 Years: A. Perry Celebrates the Retirement of Barry Loughran
30 Apr 2026
Published in: Member News
After 67 years of service, Barry Loughran has retired from A. Perry Ltd at the age of 82.
Colleagues gathered at the company's Cradley Heath headquarters today to mark the occasion and pay tribute to a man who has worked for every generation of the Perry family since joining as a factory apprentice in 1959.
Barry began his career under the founder of the business, Arthur Perry, and has since worked alongside Ernie, Alan, and the current generation of directors led by Managing Director Guy Perry. In a company that has just passed its centenary, he is the only person to have worked directly for all four generations of the family.
He started life at A. Perry on the factory floor as a tool maker and rose to become a factory supervisor, a role he held for many years. At 65 he announced his retirement, but the retirement never quite stuck. Barry came back four days a week as an extra pair of hands wherever the business needed him. In the seventeen years since, he has worked in the factory, driven delivery vehicles, built exhibition stands at trade shows up and down the country, and turned his hand to maintenance work across the site. He has not held an official job title since his first retirement, and by all accounts that suited him perfectly.
A. Perry awards a gold watch to every employee who reaches 25 years of service. Barry is one of the only employees in the company's 100-year history to have received two. When he reached 60 years in 2019, the family threw a party in his honour with 250 guests.
What has stayed constant is the work itself. Colleagues describe Barry as a true grafter, a man whose energy and pace put many people half his age to shame. Even at 82, he remained one of the fittest members of the team.
Outside work, Barry has been every bit as active. A keen traveller, he has visited more than 80 countries across six continents, regularly returning with stories that left the rest of the office quietly rebooking their own holidays.
When the Directors asked Barry what he would like as a retirement gift, the answer was pure Barry - he asked for a Perry wheelbarrow. The company duly obliged, and paired it with a three-night VIP stay at Studley Castle to send him off in style.
Guy Perry, Managing Director of A. Perry Ltd, said: "Sixty-seven years of loyalty, hard work, and quietly getting on with the job, in the way only Barry can. The place simply won't be the same without him, and we are going to miss him more than he knows. On behalf of everyone at A. Perry, thank you Barry for everything, and please don't be a stranger."
A. Perry Ltd was established in 1925 and remains a family-owned manufacturer and wholesaler of metal hardware, ironmongery, fixings, fencing products, agricultural equipment, garden décor and equestrian products, supplying merchants across the UK from its Cradley Heath base.
.jpg)
Comments
Post A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please click here to login.
Our Patrons
