Shropshire salesman celebrates 40 years
When super salesman Nigel Davies turned up for a job interview as an 18-year-old he was asked, ‘Can you start right away?’
Forty years later Nigel is still with Currys Digital in Shrewsbury’s busy Darwin Centre and still clocking up the sales awards.
He has won the 25 consecutive national sales awards with the electrical retail giants but he still recalls that first day at the store which was then in the town’s Mardol Head.
“I was from Gobowen and I came to Shrewsbury to look for work and at the end of the interview the manager asked me if I could start right away and I’ve never looked back,” he said: “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and I still love it.
“It was very different back then though. It was called Dixons then and we used to sell rubber dinghies – I remember there was one in the shop window and people used to buy them too.
“We also stocked golf clubs and golfwear because there was a sports section upstairs so it was all very different.
“Our most popular items were cine projectors and cine cameras, they were all the rage then back in 1972 as well as SLR cameras but it’s all digital now and the rubber dinghies and golf clubs are long gone.
“Our biggest sellers now are laptop computers and that’s what I specialise in but we can deal with any enquiries. You have to keep up to date and that’s always a challenge.
“But the best part of the job is still the same and that’s meeting different people every day and trying to find the right solutions for them – that’s the most interesting aspect and what I enjoy the most.”
Nigel, 58, who lives in Meole Brace, has received £1,000 in M&S vouchers from Currys Digital – he and his wife Margaret plan to spend them in the Darwin Centre store – as well as a letter from Currys Chief Executive Sebastian James.
Nigel added: “It was a very nice letter and in it he says what a great achievement it is to do 40 years service and he hopes I go on to do many more.
“I haven’t got any retirement plans just yet, another 40 years and I should be in a wheelchair but at 58 I’m still a spring chicken.”
Those 25 consecutive national sales awards date from the first year of the awards in 1986 and are an amazing record according to store deputy manager Wendy Campbell who said: “He is a super salesperson and really does the business for us and for customers.
“He’s fantastic, half of Shrewsbury seems to know him and they always look for him. A lot of people won’t go to anyone else.
“You ask if you can help them and they reply, ‘Just waiting for Nigel.’
“But he doesn’t rest on his laurels and in this business you have to keep up with the latest technology and be able to answer questions about it but you can bet that Nigel already knows his stuff.”
In his spare time Nigel and his wife, Margaret, like to unwind outdoors with wildlife photography and countryside walking.
Kevin Lockwood, Manager of the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Shopping Centres, said: “Nigel has an incredible record – I don’t think there can be very many people who have 25 annual national awards to their name in any field, let alone something as competitive as sales.
“That sort of record speaks for itself and it shows what a valuable member of staff Nigel is and I look forward to him carrying on picking up awards for years to come.”
