Associated Trainers Ltd Founder Retires
31st August 2021 was the day that everyone (who knows him as) Chris Hysett finally stepped away due to ill health from Associated Trainers Ltd., after nearly 30 years.
Chris had always been a salesman (with always a funny tale to tell) and after selling his last successful packaging company, he needed something to do! Initially working on a commission basis to find his forklift truck instructor father-in-law work, there came the day when he was creating so much that his father-in-law couldn’t keep up. Operating as a Sole Trader, Chris armed with a bookcase of Yellow Pages in his garden shed and willing self-employed instructors to work with him, started Associated Trainers in 1993. In 2002 the company was registered at Companies House.
Little did Chris know in 1993, that a young girl called Ellie, who initially worked for him on a Youth Training Scheme at his packaging company in 1979, would work for him at Associated Trainers from 2000 until 2005 both as an Administrator and his Personal Assistant. In 2012, Chris asked Ellie to return to help restructure the business with her partner (and Forklift Instructor), Steve Radford. Also in 2012, Andie (Ellies youngest daughter) joined the company after completing her A Levels. Chris by that time had married Ellie’s sister, Sally, and it became a family business in every sense of the word. Ellie has been a director since 2013 and now Andie joined her as Co-Director in 2021. Steve (now Ellies husband) continues his role as Operations Manager and Forklift Instructor.
There have been numerous changes within our industry within the last three decades. Chris has left a legacy that he can be rightly proud of and which with his steerage is well placed to continue into the future.
