Chris Thorpe retired from Stahl earlier this year after working for the company in the UK for thirty years. Under his leadership, the shoe division at Loughborough built up a healthy business despite a downward spiral in the level of shoe production in the UK, a fitting tribute to his dedication to the industry.
Joining Stahl from British United Shoe Machinery Company, he brought with him considerable experience of shoe machinery and also of adhesives from his earlier days at Bostik. Both were to stand him in good stead in developing his relationships with Stahl customers not only in England but in the Indian sub-continent which was serviced by Stahl UK. Wherever he went almost everyone in the industry knew him by name.
At a dinner given in his honour, Peter Jessop, former managing director of Stahl (UK) Ltd, said of him: ‘Chris is a big man with an even bigger heart and to all of us he had a larger than life character.’
