After 49 years in the UK amusement industry, one of its most familiar faces, Steve Perkins, is to retire.
Steve will hang up his order book on October 22 after a career that began at Music Hire Group in Leeds and has seen him work with 11 companies in the business.
“I hope that because so many of them are no longer trading, it isn’t put down to me being a jinx!” joked Perkins when he spoke with InterGame this week.
He began in the accounts department at MHG and rose to commercial manager there before moving into sales; he was to spend all of his working life in sales after that. Perkins moved on after 12 years at MHG to join HS Leisure, Yorkshire Machine Sales, ABC Leisure (his own company in partnership with Tony Barff, father of Simon Barff who is well known in the industry); then Kirkless Coin, Joyland Amusements, Dransfield Novelty Company, Dialadeal, Funtime, PMT Sales with his son Daniel, and Instance Automatics.
Steve said: “I would appreciate it if you would send out a message to all my friends who operate in the seaside arcades operating business in particular, to thank them for their friendship and business over the years.”
Retirement, he said, was coming late (aged 72) and while he still loves the industry, “the day has come when the big companies have shrunk my customer base and technology and websites have made the days of salesmen on the road a thing of the past. This has always been my preferred way of selling: face-to-face with the same great people and characters.”
Steve now plans to spend more time with his family – including his nine grandchildren.
