MEET million-mile man Cliff Bathgate.
That’s the distance the senior manager with Ellesmere Port-based instrumentation, installation and calibration company Arena Instrumentation has notched up since joining the company 18 years ago.
He has travelled to countless exotic destinations a world away from his office at the Rossmore Business Village.
He said: “I manage the team of 14 engineers, who install, maintain, service and calibrate the machinery of our clients around the world.
“When the client needs a job doing any member of our team can be dispatched anywhere around the globe at short notice – and that could also include me.
“It may sound exciting, but in reality it boils down to hours and hours travelling in cars, on boats and in planes”
Cliff, 42, who lives in West Derby, Liverpool, joined Arena after a spell as a technician with the Ministry of Defence.
His recent travels on behalf of Arena have taken him to Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Middle East, Israel, Russia, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and China.
“Many of our clients are global players,” added Cliff. “In some cases we have worked with them for a number of years. They know us and our engineers and trust us to do a professional job.
“Hence over the past five years we have had between two and six people posted abroad each and every week. And because of the volume of work I find myself heading for the airport on a regular basis too.”
Sometimes the team’s expertise can solve problems for communities as well as industries.
“We were called out to do some repair work on some Rolls Royce gas turbine engines over in China recently,” added Cliff.
“We flew into Beijing and then had to get another plane that took us deep into the hinterland towards Outer Mongolia.
“When we eventually got on site we discovered the engines were providing the power supply for a remote town. The lights went out and didn’t come back on until after we arrived.”
