The ABC of a Take-over
Page 28
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WHY does a man agree to sell a thriving business? Well,
Y I suppose there are a lot of reasons—which vary from case to case. I was interested to hear what William and John Russell, those well-known Scottish hauliers, had to say about the 080,000 take-over by the Transport Development Group (announced last week) of Russell of Batbgate, Ltd, and its associate, W. and J. Russell (Storage Contractors), Ltd.
The Russell fleet is regarded as one of Scotland's showpieces. Not one of its -140 vehicles is more than three years old, and recently the company moved into new premises on a 161-acre site. There arc depots at Leith, Bo'ness, Glasgow and London.
Started With Two
WILLIAM and John Russell began with a modest two-vehicle IT business, were nationalized in 1949, and returned to haulage in 1953 when the political wind changed. They will continue as before under the take-over.
Why did they do it? "We were approached a year ago," said William. "It was a big decision to make and it has taken us all this time, to make up our minds, the reason being that our business has expanded very rapidly and we were needing more liquid cash to allow us to expand still further."
Incidentally, they still have other interests, separate from the take-over. One is Central Garage (Bathgate), Ltd., and the other is John Russell (Grangemouth), Ltd., the John in this case being William's son.
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The Human Element
HURRAH for human beings! One thing about us is that we, can reduce great events to our level. After many weary months, Italy and Switzerland are now connected by the Great Saint Bernhard Tunnel under the Alps; traffic will be moving through next year.
Via the Eurovision television network, some 100m. people last week saw the official " break-through " (a final blast of explosive). But officialdom was pipped at the post because, some days beforehand i the Italians drilled a small hole through the remaining few feet of rock and piped wine through to their Swiss colleagues. The Swiss reciprocated with cigarettes.
To heck with frock-coated, pompous officialdom; that is how the first links should be made—and I'm glad it was.
Presidents Three
INFORMAL and enjoyable as always, the T.R.T.A.'s London and Home Counties Division annual lunch last week was a top-echelon function in at least one respect. London chairman Mr. H. C. Chandler drew attention to the uniqueness of the occasion by pointing out that T.R.T.A. ex-president M. S. C. Bond, current president Mr. K. C. Turner and president-elect. Mr. S. J. Lamborn were all present, Mr. Turner hit a nail smartly on the head when he said that since all consumables depended on road transport, fuel tax was therefore a consumer