Carriage Return

Fourteen years after its well-publicised closure, the legendary Gibb’s of Fraserburgh name has made a welcome return to road transport with a Volvo FH prime mover hauling a Gray & Adams fridge trailer.

- John Henderson

Few T&D readers will have never heard of or come across the Gibb’s of Fraserburgh operation, which closed its doors in spring 2002. The company might not have been one of Scotland’s biggest, but its reputation for high standards across the board easily made it one of the best-known transport fleets in Britain and Europe.

The Gibb family’s decision to bow out was surprising. The firm was still trading in the black but forecasts did not look good – profit margins were wafer-thin as a result of supermarket operators and foreign trucks moving fridge loads from the area for next-to-nothing rates.

Typically for an honest family with principles, Gibb’s took the tough call to finish trading with a clean sheet, to ensure each employee, creditor and supplier was paid in full. At the time, Jimmy Gibb and his son James did not rule out a return to road transport if the conditions were right.

True to form, the Gibbs have been as good as their word and in July 2016, James Gibb returned to road transport after buying a Volvo FH tractor unit and a Gray & Adams fridge trailer.

A rich history

The original Gibb’s Transport business was founded in 1896. James Gibb, great-grandfather of the current Volvo operator, started out as a carter in Fraserburgh. In those days, Gibb worked at a busy local harbour where the daily white fish catches were boosted each season by herring drifters. The Gibb family worked three farms near Fraserburgh, so there was no shortage of beasts to haul carts, but the founder’s sons soon embraced motor vehicles.

The company’s expansion soon came to the attention of local competitor Sutherland’s of Peterhead, which bought out the Fraserburgh concern just before World War Two. In turn, Sutherland’s was nationalised into British Road Services in 1948.