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J. J. Johnson
• Succeeding Arthur Jones in running Guy Motors Ltd is a "follow that!" challenge which Jim Johnson (more properly Mr Joseph James Johnson) is uniquely equipped to meet, having been Mr Jones' right-hand man during much of the Guy revival period.
Jim, whose irrepressible smile knocks off 10 of his 50 years, comes from a family steeped in road transport lore. Indentured as an apprentice to Fodens, where his father and Uncle Ted worked, he recalls scraping brasses for axle bearings and engine slide valves in that mecca of steam.
Via drawing office and repair shop he found his niche as a skilled toolroom fitter and turner, where a reserved occupation frustrated his efforts to join the Navy and RAF until 1943, when he used his enthusiasm on Tiger Moths at the flying school run by Marshalls of Cambridge—now Guy distributors.
His sharpest memory of Fodens is as 28-year-old superintendent in charge of machining and building the two-stroke engine, when he drove himself so hard that the company sagely offered him the relief of an outside job—national salesman for dumpers, They were just the "in" thing, and went like a bomb, as did the sales in his next post as West of England salesman. But it was when running London area sales, a plum job, that curiosity drove him to follow up an anonymous ad for a general sales manager, and so in 1962 he found himself at Guy, where Arthur Jones was getting a moribund company moving under the new Jaguar management.
This was uphill work—there was a factory park of 200 unsold trucks to cut his teeth on —but the corner was turned, then the Big J came along as a really winning design which progressed from paper sketches to production in 21 years.
J. J. Johnson rose to sales director, assistant md and was deputy md before succeeding Mr Jones (he has also joined the AEC board). Guy sales have rocketed in the Big J years. reaching 2200 in 1969 and 2650 last year. Now the forecast for 1971 is around 3600.
A formidable tennis player when young, and a keen golfer, Jim is now a fly fisherman (and a Wolves supporter) when he can find the time. Living on the Shropshire border, he can still follow the hounds as he has done since a boy.
Cheery, charming and considerate, he has a winning sincerity, When his name came up in conversation with a prominent haulier recently, the man remarked—appropriately —"Jim? A great guy". B.C.