Dave Roberts
Dave Roberts joined B L Shipway & Co on Monday 11th June 1979 aged 18 on the princely wage of $91.90 per week. He commenced work as a storeman, then moved into internal sales, & his fantastic work ethic saw him become a sales rep taking our company & its products to local industry & regional areas throughout SA & over the border into Mildura & Western Victoria.
His terrific people skills and the honest sincere & ethical way he went about his time as a Sales Rep won him enormous respect and success as his sales for the company continued to grow at a great rate. Robbo thrived on a challenge, nothing was too hard for him & with his enthusiasm & integrity he won a lot of business for us that others said we couldn’t get.
He had the foresight to see that there were more opportunities out there if he could improve his technical knowhow so he invested heavily in his own time to gain more skills & took on several courses to help him gain more work for the company. Robbo achieved an Advanced Diploma in Engineering which was conferred on him in January 2016. Robbo’s great efforts have taken the company to a higher level in each of his roles and we at B L Shipway & his workmates are the beneficiaries of his hard work. He worked to a very high standard and demanded the same from his team.
The special word to describe Robbo is caring, Robbo really did care about everything & everyone in his life. He cared enormously about his family – his very special wife Mandy, his 3 perfect daughters Jess, Phoebe & Ellie and their various boyfriends over the years. Mum Marcia, his Dad Brian, his 2 sisters Lynne & Kerryn. He cared about Sam when he came in the family’s life. He cared about his beloved footy club, The Mitchell Park Lions, his Netball coaching and the girls & the success they had. He cared about the Legends Baseball Team in the Masters Games, he cared for many & would do anything with or for them.
Robbo cared about every job he undertook for the company and the end result for the customer. He cared about the company, its standing in the community & very importantly, the people he worked with. The B L Shipway family would like to thank Mandy & the girls for sharing the great man with us through such a long, successful journey.
B L Shipway owes a lot to Robbo for us being the company we are today.
