FORTY years ago, Sandy Minty set foot in Haddington’s Mitsubishi factory.
Now, he is helping to build a retail park on the same site on the town’s western edge.
The 57-year-old started as an operator at the factory and is now part of the labouring team constructing the town’s first retail park.
The former Mitsubishi factory at Gateside before it was demolished
He said: “It feels odd walking on the site that is now going to be Aldi, Iceland – The Food Warehouse and Home Bargains.
“It was a factory of 600 people that made televisions before. My house is just about on the site as well!
“I live at the new Persimmon homes, so I am living and working on the site.”
The dad-of-two, who previously lived on Burnside and Riverside Drive in the town, worked in the Mitsubishi factory for 16 years from March 1981.
Sandy Minty as a young man when he worked in Haddington's Mitsubishi factory
Originally, there were only 300 members of staff but that number doubled as the factory expanded.
Mr Minty told the Courier: “I loved it.
“It was great and everybody loved it.
“We moaned about it at the time but then it shut and we were all devastated.”
Mitsubishi took over the Haddington plant in 1979 but it closed nearly 20 years later, with the sharp drop in the price of television sets blamed for the closure.
The site is in the process of being transformed, with new housing built to the east.
A retail park, which will have nearly 300 free-of-charge parking spaces, is also in the process of being built (see image below).
It is expected that the retail park, which will also include a Costa Coffee and petrol station, with plans for a neighbouring coffee shop with drive-thru also in place, will be finished early this summer.
Mr Minty, who is due to become a grandfather later this month, would go on to move up the career ladder at Mitsubishi before working in Bellshill and then for BT as an engineer.
He told the Courier he had a pension from BT but spotted an advert for labourers online and decided to take the job “to keep myself busy”.
He added: “It is strange being back.
“It’s like karma – what goes around comes around.”
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