2012 is a very special year for Rehau, the polymer specialist based at Hill Court in Walford, since it will mark its 50th anniversary in the UK.

For one member of the senior management team however, 2012 has an even greater significance since it marks her 50th anniversary with the business.

Erika White, Company Secretary, first joined Rehau in August 1961 at the Paris sales office. She moved to the UK shortly after it established its first sales office in Slough and was instrumental in its move to Ross in 1995.

Since that time, Mrs White, sister- in-law of Rehau's founder Helmut Wagner, has become inseparably linked with the Hill Court facility, which is Rehau's UK headquarters as well as its national conference and exhibition centre.

Mrs White's ach­ievement was officially recognised at a ceremony held at Rehau's international headquarters in Germany recently. The occasion was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Mrs White shared her anniversary celebrations with another Rehau employee, Max Ruhland. He has also spent 50 years with the company, the majority as a tool maker at Rehau sites in Germany, France, the UK and Canada.