Sankey set up the firm in 1939, the day before the Second World War was declared. After the war he invested his 100 RAF demob money to relaunch the business.
In 1980 the firm moved to its current factory in Beaumont Leys and it has grown to sales of 50m and employing 400 staff.
Sankey was known as the Old Man to the firms workforce but, said the firm, he also possessed the rare ability to grasp the meaning of new technologies.
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