Mayor praises Morris Lubricants as a Shrewsbury success story

He described the company, which has a workforce of 140 at its Castle Foregate headquarters, as a major success story for Shrewsbury.

The Mayor toured Morris Lubricants’ blending plant with his wife, Tricia and “mini mayors” Kaleigh Hughes, 14 and Doug Coull, 13, from The Priory School in Shrewsbury. Cllr Durnell is inviting seven secondary schools in the town to appoint mini mayors to spend a day with him and the Mayoress to experience exactly what mayoral duties entail.

The mayoral party was given a guided tour by Morris Lubricants’ managing director Andrew Goddard and also met Edward Goddard, managing director of the company’s leisure division, Morris Leisure. The brothers are fifth generation direct descendants of entrepreneur James Kent Morris who established the company in 1869.

“These two young men are carrying on the Morris family tradition of their forefathers and it has been nice to revisit the company and see how much the technology has developed since I was last here more than 30 years ago,” said the mayor.

“It’s an incredible success story for the town and the business is investing in the future of Shrewsbury.”

Andrew Goddard said the company had more than 800 product lines, 4,000 customers in all corners of the UK and a growing export business to more than 65 countries worldwide, including New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan.

Following their visit, the mini mayors will give a presentation to their classmates at school. “I knew Morris Lubricants was a Shrewsbury company but I had no idea what they did until today,” said Kaleigh. “It was really good to visit and am looking forward to sharing the information with my peers.”

Doug said he was particularly interested in the technology involved in producing modern lubricants and enjoyed seeing the different processes in the blending plant.

Mr Goddard commended the mayor’s initiative in giving secondary school children an understanding of his role and engaging them in local politics.