THE oldest family firm in Middlesbrough celebrated another milestone this week when it acknowledged the loyalty of the staff.

Henry Newbould, based at Riverside Park, now has 23 staff with at least 25 years' service and about half the 249-strong team has been with the firm for more than ten years.

The butchery and meat products business was started in 1856 by 17-year-old Wilson Newbould, the great-grandfather of the present directors of the firm.

It has survived two world wars, recessions, bombing by the Nazis which obliterated the original shop in 1942 and a fire in 1986 which completely destroyed its new meat processing plant.

Despite these heavy knocks, Newboulds has continued to grow and now has 20 shops and a 35,000sq ft food processing plant serving supermarket chains and others in the food industry.

The company has a string of awards to its name, including Best Butcher in the North in 1996, and Best Butcher in Britain in 1997, both awarded by the Meat Trades Journal.

In November, it received the Higher Level Certificate of Conformity from the European Food Safety Inspection Service, underlining the motto coined by Wilson Newbould almost 150 years ago: "Quality is the order of the day".

One of the people responsible for that quality is Frank Cowell, 64, who has been with Newboulds for 29 years and is now factory manager on the "low risk" operation, which makes and bakes a wide variety of savoury products, including pies, sausage rolls, pasties, scotch eggs and quiches.

He said: "I've stayed here this long because I enjoy the job. You have your good days and bad days, just like anywhere else, but we have more good than bad.

"The management is pretty fair and they are always on the job, so you can always go to them if you need something."

He cited the amount of paperwork, hygiene regulations and the variety of products as the main changes in his time at Newboulds. "Years ago it was just pork pies and sausage rolls, but now there are a lot of different varieties and flavours.

"You also have the all supermarket inspectors coming round three or four times a year to do their audits. Before, you used to see the local health inspector and that was it."

On the retail side, Julie French, 38, is one of 20 shop managers who make up the public face of Newboulds.

She joined the firm straight from school as a shop assistant and has managed the Wellington Street store in Stockton for the last three years.

"It's always been a good company to work for," she said, "so I stayed where I am. I would think I'll be here for good now.

"I enjoy serving the public and you get to know all the regular customers on a first-name basis. They are like an extended family and are more like friends, really."

At the top of the food chain, so to speak, is the chairman, Michael Newbould. He joined the family business 46 years ago and has been chairman for more than 30 of those years.

"In the old days it was very much seat of the pants," he recalled. "Wrapping was just a bag and a carrier; now we have every sort of packaging worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"We are always trying to make new and different lines, things the supermarkets haven't got.

"Maybe, one day, we'll even make a profit," he joked.