Lee Crofts was born and bred in the Welsh capital of Cardiff, where he lives to this day with his wife, Paula, and their three children: Hannah, 18, Harvey, 14, and Darcie, aged 3. “They get on well; there’s a nice dynamic between the three of them”, says Lee. “Darcie is a little character already!”
2019 marks Lee’s tenth year with F. Ball, so we ask him to recount his career path to date:
“I left school in 1991 and did a retail management course with House of Fraser, who referred me to their carpet department. I worked for about 12 years in flooring retail, but I always wanted to be a technical representative, so after that I worked as a representative for Polyflor Ltd. for six years. When the technical representative vacancy came up at F. Ball, I was keen to become more involved on-site and in the technical side of things, and happily for me I got the job.
“I really enjoy meeting different types of people through my job, and I get a lot of satisfaction seeing a job through from start to finish. We make excellent products at F. Ball, and it’s great when customers and contractors come out happy.”
As technical representative for the West and South Wales, Lee gives regular advice to local F. Ball customers via emails, phone calls and site visits. “I probably come in to contact with 60-70 people on average every week. I travel thousands of miles a month, so it’s important that I can stay active in my free time. I play five-a-side football with my friends every week, and I coach the under-15s at Cyncoed Athletic Football Club, where my son plays. Last year, the team recently moved up a division for the first time in a decade, so I was very proud of that.”
Impressive! We detect that Lee is a big sports fan, so we wonder whether a career in sports was ever on the cards.
“Like every young boy I wanted to be a professional footballer, and although that never materialised, I’m a season ticket holder with Cardiff City F.C. I watch them play every Saturday, and afterwards I enjoy a well-earned drink with my friends at the end of a long working week!
“I follow the rugby, too, but on more of an international level, and I was a very keen snooker player when I was younger. I actually represented Wales in the UK Boys’ Club Championship playing pool and snooker, though that was a long time ago now.”
Well that’s quite the achievement!