FOUR men have been awarded for a combined 100 years service at one of the south’s largest independent companies.

Darren Bishop, Pete Boyt, Tom Lee and Darren Milam joined 132 employees to received milestone awards for the engineering contractor Trant Engineering, in Rushington House.

Darren Bishop project manages contracts for Guernsey Water and Guernsey Electric and Pete works on maintenance at Fawley Refinery.

Tom is a works supervisor in the energy sector and Darren Milam is a carpenter at the refinery.

Each of these men have worked at the company for 25 years and collected their awards at the Best Western Chilworth Manor Hotel, Chilworth.

Machine driver Les Dyke and Declan Hayes, director of Guernsey Operations, joined 19 other employees who have served 40 years each.

Chairman Patrick Trant, said: “I’ve said it before but we must be at top of the Premier League for service and loyalty – champions.

“Long service awards are an accreditation that especially represents loyalty, talent and faith in the business and I express my utmost appreciation to all previous recipients gathered here and those unable to be here.”

Trant Engineering operates in the UK and has received design and build contract awards from clients such as ExxonMobil, Ministry of Defence, National Grid and Southern Water.

Patrick added: “Our sectors water, oil and gas, energy and CAPEX International remain buoyant, fully supported by our in-house civil, mechanical and electrical design team, which is focused to deliver our current and future projects.

“In the last year our off-site manufacturing facility has made real progress, gaining creditability with our clients and increasing the company’s engineering appeal.

“Our continued and improved investment in technical and skills upgrading is paramount to our future and I find much satisfaction when our staff young and older achieve their accreditations.”

A special mention was given to Damian Nunn, who beat 2,432 apprentices to win the title Outstanding Apprentice of the Year in the National Construction College Awards.

Damian said: “Trant Engineering has an inspirational commitment to workplace training and development – this kind of backing and support made me even more determined to repay their faith in taking a chance on me.

“The apprenticeship has transformed me – I had been pigeon-holed at secondary education as someone who wouldn’t do much with my life. It took Trant Engineering to come along and tell me ‘You can be the best’.”

Staff and guests were also told the company was named first palce in the business UK digitalisation awards for technology and innovation.

The judges said: “It is a business that has developed a market-leading virtual reality offering customers to ‘step into’ a newly designed scheme. It has also transformed and digitalised its project management and document management systems.”