Long lost cousins reunited via new Aylesbury depot's recruitment drive

Two cousins have been reunited courtesy of a recruitment drive at a new depot in Aylesbury.

Ryan Krzeminski and Martin Krzeminski were reunited at the new LWC depot in Aylesbury having last seen one another some 35 years ago.

Upon opening, the new depot was recruiting for a number of roles, including a ‘driver’s mate’ position. When a CV from Ryan came through, depot manager Martin, joked that Ryan had to get the role simply because he had the same surname as him.

Little did Martin know; Ryan is in fact his cousin, he was unaware of this due to their fathers losing touch with each other 35 years ago.

Martin said: “I made contact with Ryan before his actual start date at LWC saying: ‘This is a bit random but I think we are related, our dads being brothers Nick and Phil’….Obviously I felt slightly anxious and wanted to make sure Ryan was comfortable with joining still, as I wasn’t too sure how much he knew about my side of the family.

“We were both very eager to meet after the initial contact and I was glad that Ryan felt the same, especially as we’d be working in the same LWC depot together. When setting Ryan up on our systems, Payroll contacted me to say well done for bringing another Krzeminski on board but were equally as amazed that it was all by pure chance.”

Ryan was successful in his application and started working at LWC Aylesbury as a driver’s mate before moving on to become a van driver shortly after. The business is now looking to progress Ryan to a class two driver as part of their ‘warehouse to wheels’ development program.

LWC opened a new 116k sq ft depot in Aylesbury creating 60 new jobs this summer.

Martin added: “When I first told my parents that I would be relocating from LWC’s Slough depot to our new Aylesbury site my mother said ‘your uncle Nick moved that way’ but she wasn’t sure if he was still in the area. It was only a week later that I saw Ryan Philip Krzeminski come into my inbox, and I joked to the team ‘We must get this lad on board, he’s a Krzeminski so he has to be hard working!’ Little did I know he was family.”

Sadly, it was tragic circumstances that led to the two families losing contact 30+ years ago. Martin said: “Our fathers worked together in the building trade, raced cars and were very close. One day they were out and were involved in a serious car accident where they were hit head on by an overtaking car. My father sadly did not survive. I was very young at the time, and this was before Ryan was born approximately 37 years ago. Our families grew apart after this and we lost contact. However, I am delighted to say that we are now planning to meet up this Christmas.”