38 AND OUT FOR NISSAN MAN

As he retires after a career spanning five decades, Senior vice president Kevin Fitzpatrick tells us about his life with Nissan

- Tristan Shale-Hester

WHEN we speak to Kevin Fitzpatrick, he admits he’s alt feeling a little worse for wear from his retirement do the previous night. But no one can begrudge him that, because this is a man whose retirement has been very well earned.

Anyone who has visited Nissan’s plant in Sunderland officially titled Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK, or NMUK for short will know that the sheer scale of the site, where around 6,000 people are employed, is breathtaking.

That certainly wasn’t the case, however, when Kevin joined Nissan 38 years ago. He was one of the original 22 supervisors hired in preparation for the Bluebird going into production at the still-to-be-constructed site.

As a result, Kevin’s career charts the history of a factory that has become one of the UK automotive industry’s biggest success stories. As he finally retires from the company he’s given so much of his life to, we’re taking the opportunity to catch up with him.

“I'd just turned 25 back in 1985,” Kevin tells us. Previous to that, I’d worked for two other companies, both of which were in the declining traditional industries. The North East was being particularly hard hit with the closure of heavy industries, and coal mining was also being affected, so seeing a green-field site development by a big, global player at that stage of my career was an opportunity.

“I didn’t think I’d get the job because wasn’t experienced in car manufacturing and wasn’t very old,” he says. So to get it was unbelievable for me and obviously it was an opportunity wasn’t going to let slip by.