Agricultural industry supplier Mary McGinn, who has retired after 38 uninterrupted years of serving Arran and Ayrshire, will be guest of honour at a special retirement lunch at the Brodick Bar where past customers will acknowledge their appreciation of the years of help received from Mary.
Mary, of Agricultural Central Trading (ACT), started out in the office in New Cumnock but it wasn’t long before her potential was recognised and she was ‘thrust out into the field’ as a ‘wee slip of a lassie’ when, in April 1979, Gloria Gaynor was at number one with ‘I Will Survive’. Mary not only survived the initial challenge of trying to please her sometimes awkward customers in a then mostly-male dominated industry, but she won their respect and affection by her unstinting dedication to her job and her sunny personality.
Through difficult trading times, such as escalating fuel prices, the introduction and final demise of milk quotas, foot and mouth disease and the financial upheaval of 2007, as well as ever volatile market trends, Mary attended her customers unfailingly.