Employees at Yorkshire-based YPO, the UK’s largest publicly owned buying organisation, today celebrated 40 years of helping the public sector make taxpayers’ money go further. The company marked its Ruby Anniversary with a supplier sponsored day filled with employee recognition awards, team building exercises, and a lunch with special guest speakers, not to mention a huge cake.
Able to trace its roots to as far back as 1915, when it began life as West Riding County Supplies, the company was reborn in 1974 as Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation and today is known simply as YPO following a rebrand and national marketing campaign in 2012. The organisation has helped drive public sector efficiency savings through its bulk buying power for supplies and centralised contract services initiatives, throughout.
As well as the full board and senior management who were in attendance today to show their appreciation, YPO acknowledged three members of staff who have been with the organisation for the full 40 years; Christine Preston, Alan Roe and John Goldthorpe (pictured below).
Christine Preston who works in Human Resources said: “YPO is a fantastic place to work. Times have certainly changed over the years. When I first started in 1974, all orders were processed manually and we took calls with just two phones! I’ve seen people come and go, and sometimes come back again! It’s been my only job since leaving school; it’s been a pleasure to come to work every day and I’ve met some great people along the way. I haven’t regretted a single moment.”
Simon Hill, Managing Director of YPO said: “YPO employees through the decades have worked tirelessly to help our public sector customers make best use of their ever squeezed budgets, whether it’s schools, local authorities, charities, the NHS or the emergency services. They are a talented and highly skilled group and we wanted to applaud their achievements. They have helped us go from strength to strength as an organisation. Indeed, we are aiming to hit a record £1 million of stock orders taken in one day sometime this summer.
“Our latest annual figures, published just this week demonstrate yet another year on year rise in base turnover and means we can continue to give more back to the public purse. To date, YPO has given back £105 million to the public sector.”
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