Making Very Good
Page 65
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T AM intrigued to learn that an Aberdeen man who has built up a 1 200-vehicle haulage fleet in 20 years in Central Africa has just been casting around in his native burgh for a qualified fleet engineer and four diesel mechanics. He is Richard Smith and a relative by marriage, J. T. Forbes, has been doing the searching over here. Not for the first time, either, as he has sent a dozen men out to jobs with the company in recent years. Richard Smith went out to Springs, near Johannesburg, as a flour-mill fitter, worked his way up to the Copper Belt and finally bought a lorry and moved to Lusaka to join up with another young Aberdonian. By driving lorries (and themselves) for seven days a week they made enough to get the business really growing in a big way. Now Mr. Smith employs 550 men, and runs lime quarries, tobacco farms and two ice factories as well as a haulage fleet. Enterprise—and hard work.