Reply To: Empire Paper Mills (Greenhithe)

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Working Lives of Older People

My Working Life 1960 – 2008 Anonymous

http://www.wisearchive.co.uk/story/my-working-life-1960-2008/

Author moved from Imperial Mill:

Eventually in 1983 I was offered a transfer to Empire Paper Mills at Greenhithe, I didn’t have to cycle as I had done to Everards in 1960 as I could now drive. My title was now Cost & management Accountant, much the same responsibility I had at Imperial but with some extra. It was here that I was introduced to “Desk Top Computers” what a revolution, we could now do our own input and get our own printouts without all the hassle of transporting information backwards and forwards to Aylesford as had been done up to that point. The whole of the accounts operation was now speeded up but the downside was that there was no need for the punch room, (this was where all the data was transferred onto, originally punch cards and later magnetic tape). This meant further redundancies as technology had taken the place of people again.

Empire struggled on for year after year and in 1991 was sold to a Norwegian company called Norske Skogâ they believed they had enough knowledge and experience to turn the business around but in 1993 they had to admit defeat and the mill was closed down.