Tribute to environment veteran.

After a distinguished career in air quality instrumentation, Colin Craggs has retired from his longstanding role as a senior member of the Air Monitors sales team. Colin retires on a high, having personally achieved over £1 million in sales during 2017 and significantly more in 2018. This success is partly due to the growing concern with air pollution which is driving the need to monitor, but is also testament to the depth of knowledge and experience that Colin was able to share with his customers.

Born in Wolsingham, County Durham (GB) in 1956, Colin first worked in the minerals processing industry, attending night school in Consett, but this was followed by a career in environmental instrumentation that lasted for 36 years. Coincidentally, he has been married to his wife Christine for about the same period of time. Christine attended the same school in Wolsingham, but being significantly younger was unaware of Colin’s existence until he sidled up to her in a pub and employed his best negotiating techniques to persuade her to go out with him. Happily, he was successful, and for most of their married life the family home has been near Selby, where Colin and Christine raised their two children Andrew and Catherine. Through a wry smile, Christine says, “Sadly, that means both my kids are ‘Yorkshire’.” However, this did enable Colin to pursue his passion for Rugby League as a season ticket member of the Castleford Tigers club. Colin was therefore deeply moved to be presented, on his retirement from Air Monitors, with a rugby ball signed by the Tigers first team.

Colin’s first instrumentation job was with Instrumentation Laboratories, which subsequently became part of the Thermo group. At that time, another member of the sales team was a young man from Glasgow, named Jim Mills, who became head of Thermo’s environmental division. Then, when Jim left, Colin was promoted to this position and spent many years with the group. In recognition of his success in various roles at Thermo, Colin was recently the recipient of a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

The two young (ish) salesmen acquired a healthy respect for each other, so when Colin left Thermo in 2010, Jim snapped him up immediately, giving him Air Monitors’ sales responsibility for the north of England.

Jim is a great believer in the experience and expertise necessary to build trust with customers, so he says: “The decision to offer Colin a job was one of the easiest I have ever had to make. He is very well liked and respected in the air quality sector, and his technical knowledge is excellent, so we were thrilled when he agreed to join Air Monitors.

“The great thing about Colin is that he is happiest when he is with customers; helping to solve their measurement problems. He is a straight talking, genuine guy with the integrity that generates trust and respect.

“It is very sad that Colin is now retiring – after nine hugely successful years with Air Monitors there are some big shoes to fill, but he has laid the foundation for a very strong business, and we are hugely optimistic about the future.”

Apart from his family, Colin’s pride and joy is a twelve year old Golf R32. As a purveyor of environmental instrumentation, this classic vehicle (with a 3.2-litre V6 engine), is Colin’s guilty secret, and Christine says that it’s so special he rarely takes it out of the garage. Doubtless, Colin plans to spend much of his retirement in the R32 burbling around the rural lanes of Yorkshire. However, Christine has conveniently prepared a list of activities for Colin – mainly jobs that were left unattended while he was busy breaking sales records, so Colin does not have to fear for the possibility of boredom.

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