Celebrating a True ‘Industry Legend’ – Steve Talbot Turns 80!
Today we celebrate an incredible milestone for someone who truly embodies dedication, resilience, and passion for the cleaning industry — our window cleaning expert, Steve Talbot, who turns 80 years young!
Steve has been fixed at right, left and centre of ‘we clean’ from the very start of our business all those 22 years ago, and his working relationship with Directors Paul Concannon, David Harker, HR Director Gaynor Powell and Specialist Directors Tim Byng and Steve Rawlings spans well over 35 years!
Despite reaching 80, Steve continues to work with incredible energy and enthusiasm, adapting to modern window cleaning techniques such as Reach and Wash, whilst still drawing on decades of invaluable hands-on experience and he continues to provide professional, reliable and exceptional window cleaning services within Birmingham city centre as he has for the past 60 years!
As Steve often remarks: “If you’re fit enough, you’re young enough”.
Steve’s genuine passion for the discipline of Window Cleaning has no bounds, he thrives on his early 5am starts and it is fair to say that he lives for the work.
Throughout the past six decades Steve has seen both the industry and also ‘his city’ of Birmingham change dramatically and it was great that David, Paul, Steve, Tim and Gaynor accompanied by Steve’s son Steve, who works hand in hand with his Father, were able to celebrate his milestone 80th Birthday and reflect on many wonderful memories made over that time!
Steve commented:
“I really can’t believe where the years have gone, time moves so quickly but this probably reflects the fact that I absolutely love what I do, its been a real pleasure to have been such an integral part of the ‘we clean’ journey and it is incredible to see what the business has achieved and evolved into during that time, and I am so glad that I’ve been able to play my part.
David, Paul, Steve, Tim and Gaynor are like a family to me and I really appreciate them marking my 80th Birthday in this way!”
The management team organised a special 80th Birthday card with lots of photos capturing his time with we clean with all Head Office / Management staff offering their own personal wishes to Steve and he also received a very personalised mirror which was apt given that he has cleaned so many over so many years.
The company also presented Steve with a marquee watch as a token of our ‘genuine appreciation’ of his loyalty and commitment to ‘doing the job right’ in enhancing our reputation and supporting the development of brand ‘we clean’!
David Harker commented:
“I am delighted that we were able to celebrate Steve’s big 80th Birthday on a warm, sunny Birmingham evening!
Steve has played a pivotal role over the last 22 years and I look back fondly on the early days of we clean when we were successfully awarded the contract to clean the new city centre Bullring project, which was a challenging 2 months for Steve and his team who worked round the clock to meet tight opening deadlines.
All of us here at we clean have the utmost respect for Steve’s work ethic, dedication and passion as he continues to carry out the job he loves across the city centre.
Well done Steve we hope you have a great time celebrating and here’s to many more years to come!”
Succession planning is firmly in place when the time does eventually arrive for him to hang up his ‘Mop and Blade’, with young Steve waiting patiently in the wings to take the reigns but that remains a few years off just yet as Big Steve certainly has plenty of miles left in the tank.
The ‘younger’ Steve, who works closely with his Dad across Birmingham.
From everyone at ‘we clean’, Happy 80th Birthday Steve — you really are a true Birmingham Window Cleaning ‘legend’ in every sense of the word!!
