WHEN Andrew Kent closes the door to his office at Ocean Gate in Atlantic Way, Eastern Docks, on March 31, it will only be after his in-tray is cleared.

That means many of the 210 ABP staff at Southampton may have to wait a bit longer than 5.30pm to give him a good send-off, if that is what they have planned.

But after that door is finally shut by him for the last time, what does the future hold for one of Southampton's key business leaders, and what will he reflect on?

Andrew, who is being replaced by 53-year-old Doug Morrison from ABP's Goole and Hull ports, said: "Clearly this has not been an easy decision but I have come to the view that 16 years in one job is too long. It's as simple as that.

"The fact is I've had a hell of a good time, I've really enjoyed myself. It has been ever so satisfying working with some really nice people and we have been a very effective team.

"I just think that 16 years is long enough. I think it's time for me to move on and to see if there's another world out there.

"It gives me the opportunity, if the opportunities are out there, to do some other things. At the moment, I don't know.

"I'm not really big or good on holidays. I'm also not good at pruning roses either. What I want to do, if I can, is remain in the Southampton area. Hampshire is our home really.

"This isn't a job, it's a life, really. It's a 24-hour-a-day job. But it's fine, it has been great fun.

"It also brings with it involvement, not just in the business life of Southampton and this region but a whole lot of other things from a personal point of view."

They have included guidance roles with Southampton City College and the university, as well as the Scout movement.

Andrew said: "There are lots of things in the life of the city, quite apart from the business of running the port as a business, that my wife Lesley and I found very important and rewarding, and I want to carry on with some of those.

"I've always been interested in seeing things happen. I have little patience in being involved in talking shops and things that just carry on and don't achieve any real objectives.

"I've always got tremendous satisfaction out of helping to see things in the bigger community - that's always something that I've been very interested in.

"I think, inevitably, there'll be a sense of when you're closing a door you're looking back as you go out on the things that you've done, so there will be some of that.

"But, by the same token, as you go out through that door you're opening up to the new world.

"As I said, what I'd like to do actually is to continue to be involved particularly in some local and regional businesses and I'd like to, if I can, have some involvement in the civic life of the city. But we shall see.

"I would hope to be remembered as someone who made a real difference, for the better, to the lives of the people in my own community. Maybe I've done a bit of that, and, if so, that would be enough."