It started when Angus Spence approached me saying that his son Mark had just qualified as an electrician and that there was an electrical contracting business for sale in Queenstown called Kens Electrical and while, Mark was qualified, he had no contracting experience which I did have, having worked in civil engineering, for a number of years.

We duly purchased the business from Ken Freestone who was emigrating to Australia. They had several existing contracts and several pending which made the purchase more viable. The staff was well trained and included none other than Raymond Twaku. We traded from the existing premises in Owen street, also adding a small tool plant hire section.

We then moved to Cathcart Road hiring the building from Joe Mokowem who was trading next door. We continued to grow the sales side until eventually Mark and I decided to split the business with him continuing to do the contracting while I took over the sales side and changed the name to WG SUPPLIERS.

I then saw an advert by Mica looking for stores to join them. I approached them and had a visit from Graham Bush who was very keen but said we would need to relocate and add a lot more hardware to our lines.

We relocated to our existing premises and added the extra lines.and changed our name to WG MICA. Sales continued to grow and new departments such as paint, plumbing, building materials, garden and home were added. More staff were employed to man the new departments and the staff compliment now stands at +- 50.

A management team was formed to help manage the business.

4 years ago, following a heart operation, Gail suffered a stroke and the two of us decided to take a less active roll

to enable Gail to undergo intensive rehabilitation which we did at Pasteur hospital in Bloemfontein and Aurora hospital in PE and today she continues to have physical therapy on a daily basis.

The management team took over total control and have managed the business ever since.