Staff from a Honley components firm surprised and delighted customers at their local Aldi store with a random act of Christmas kindness.

Four members of staff from Accu, which supplies components to many of the world’s largest manufacturers, spent a little time spreading some Christmas joy.

The colleagues approached customers at the tills at the Aldi store in Holmfirth on Tuesday morning, offering to pay for their shopping – and the heart-warming smiles, tears and hugs were captured on a video shared by the company.

The festive spirit was catching too as one of the couples who had their shopping paid for said they would be passing on the goodwill by making a donation to a charity that buys presents for children at Christmas.

The four members of staff were: customer satisfaction specialist Mollie-May James, IT manager Danny Hargreaves, marketing manager Dominic Scaife and Jodie Carson, content marketing specialist.

Jodie said: “We had a lovely morning. It was a great success and such a heart-warming experience. We wanted to do something to support people from our local community, in the hope of spreading some joy in time for Christmas.”

Accu’s co-founder and CEO, Martin Ackroyd, said: “At Accu, we like to share our success and often take part in charity events so I wasn’t surprised when a few members of my team came to me with the idea to spend a day gifting unsuspecting local people, by paying for their Christmas shopping.

“Knowing how anxious people get standing at the checkout at this time of year I instantly said: ‘Let’s do it!’

“It turned out to be one of the best days in my working career, leaving me feeling rather emotional. And the feelings have been infectious across our whole team.

“I’m so grateful that Accu is in a position to be able to touch people’s lives in such a personal, positive way. This is what really makes owning and running a business worthwhile.

“So I’m bringing 2022 to a close feeling incredibly content that I’m living the dream. A huge thanks to team Accu and a merry Christmas to all!”

Accu’s generosity didn’t stop there. The team bought a trolley-load of festive food and donated it to a food bank at the Full Life Church in Thongsbridge for it to be added to Christmas hampers.

The Accu team (from left to right) are: Gary Callinan, Mollie-May James, Danny Hargreaves and Jodie Carson

Accu community manager Matt Ogden said it was great that the company’s act of kindness had inspired others to give too.

“Within hours of our ‘random acts of kindness’, one of the couples who benefitted got in touch to thank us, letting us know that they would be passing on the goodwill gesture,” he said.

“The saving on their Christmas shopping is going to be donated to a charity that buys Christmas presents for children who otherwise wouldn’t get any, saying: ‘What goes around comes around.’ This truly is what Christmas is all about.

“As Accu grows, we want to use our scale and platform to make a significant impact in the local area and across the world.

“We have big plans for 2023, with the AccuFoundation set up to enable us to do even more charity work and create volunteering opportunities for our team.

“This will include donating 100 days of our time to support local people and causes and we would love to hear from charities that need support.”

Honley-based engineering firm Accu’s key component for growth in 2022 is apprentices