Meet The Maker: Lucinda Bamford
Job title: Warping Operator, aka The Warping Wizard
Time at Milliken: 4 years
Role: The life of a carpet begins with Lucinda in the warping department. Preparation is the name of the game as Lucinda is responsible for taking the nylon yarn from its raw format on bobbins, and getting it ready for its journey in the manufacturing process. Lucinda is tasked with prepping the yarn ready for the process of tufting. With a mathematical mind, Lucinda calculates the yarn requirements for our customer orders ensuring minimal waste and less environmental impact. It’s vast array of jobs from the manual task of loading the bobbins on to the pegs, operating the crane to hoist the finished beams into their cradles through to the delicate task of threading and splicing of yarn, Lucinda is a master of them all.
What I like about Milliken: Before I started working at Milliken I was going through a bit of a rough time, I had lost a job done a bit of travelling and when I came back contacted an agency that put me on to Milliken. Before then I’d never had a job I could actually see myself in, then when I started at Milliken I thought I can really see myself fitting in well here. I worked in other roles at Milliken then applied for and got the job on the warper.
I like that I can set things out and have my own routine and structure; I like just getting on with it. You can just lose yourself, you look at the clock and 3 hours have gone. I’m not the best at concentrating and this job has helped my concentration a lot.
It’s really supportive, I struggle with mental health quite a lot and before I worked here I never went to see a counsellor or anything like that. Milliken have an onsite counsellor – Clare – who really helps me so, so much, she’s amazing. You don’t get that in other jobs.
100 years of making in the UK: It’s cool – I didn’t actually know that.
Passions: I like to go to the gym and go swimming and spend a lot of time with my partner. We like to go on holidays and for days out like theme parks and we’ve got 2 cats so spending time with them as well.
Dream installation: What about that big mall in Dubai, imagine!
Musical motivation: Fleetwood Mac for me, but I like everything, whatever is on. It definitely motivates me, 100 per cent, when the music comes on everyone seems so much happier.
Best thing about Wigan: I live in Wigan and have all my life but now I live literally a 5 minute drive from the factory. I absolutely love Wigan: I love the people, I love the atmosphere, I love the pies! What more could you want. The nightlife’s good too.
Biggest achievements: My biggest one is not ending my life. I’ve struggled with depression all my life but now I’m so happy – I love coming into work, I love going home – I’ve got everything I ever dreamed of.
Opportunities: I do genuinely feel it was Milliken that started me off on the right path. I’m nearly 28 now and it’s taken me a little while to get where I am. I feel that this is the job that pretty much saved me; I know I did it myself but it gave me everything I needed to become the person that I am. When they told me I’d got the warper job that I have now I literally cried.
Teamwork: I love the people, most of the people are upbeat and friendly, we’re like a big family. Our team leader is the best guy if I ever need help or support I just go to him, he’s the kind of guy you can talk to about anything which is great. I feel supported.
On delivering a premium quality product: When I do my job I do it to the best of my abilities.
Interested in meeting more of our Makers? Stay tuned to read The Tufting Story, featuring Martin Topping.
