Tributes as businessman loses cancer battle

4:49pm Monday 30th June 2008

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TRIBUTES have been paid to a North-East businessman who built up his family-run firm into a successful and prize-winning enterprise.

Keith Hunwick, 51, of Chester-le-Street, who was managing director of the Birtley-based ES Access Platforms, died on Thursday following his fight with cancer.

His mother, Jean, said: "He was very brave. He went to work right until the end and fought his illness all the way.

"He was a go-getter and entrepreneur who set his goals high and achieved them."

Mr Hunwick left school with no qualifications, but with a keen interest in machines - and he went on educated himself, qualifying as an engineer.

After initially working as a mechanic, he set up a window cleaning business with the help of his late father, Ronald.

The two then created an electrical services business and went into wagon operating, before buying a piece of land in Portobello, Birtley, to set up ES Access Platforms in 1982.

Over 25 years, he and his family built up ES Access Platforms into the country's leading provider of cherry pickers and access platforms, with depots in Scotland and Leeds.

The business, with a multi-million pound turnover, operates the largest underbridge inspection platform unit of its kind in the world - built to Mr Hunwick's specifications.

At the Sunderland Echo Porfolio Business Awards last year, Mr Hunwick won the award for Small Business of the Year, Enterprise of the Year and the overall title. He supported a range of charities, including Cancer Research and Children in Need.

Mr Hunwick is survived by his second wife, Bernadette, and sons Ian, 26, Lee, 24, and Dean, 29, who all work in the business. He also had a brother, Paul.

The funeral service is at the parish church of St Mary and St Cuthbert in Chester-le-Street on Wednesday, at 1pm.