This year we are excited to be celebrating 50 years of Russell Logistics, founded in 1969 by our Chairman John Russell. John started the business with just 14 vehicles which primarily serviced the Steel Industry. Now sitting with over 250 vehicles, see the timeline below to look back on the last 50 years and how the company has progressed.
- In 1969, John G Russell (Transport) Ltd was founded by John Russell and was based in Coatbridge.
- In 1970, Russell moved from Coatbridge to Gartcosh. Russell had a mixed fleet of artics that moved steel and milk floats doing bottled milk deliveries.
- In 1970, Russell opened a Maintenance & Repair facility and began their involvement within the Container Industry.
- In 1972, Carntyne was purchased by the Russell family and ran a mixture of two and three axle tipper vehicles from the East end of Glasgow. The company serviced local Iron and Steel works by removing blast furnace slag for use in road construction.
- In 1974, given the demise of the Clyde Iron Works, John Russell decided to expand operations into the distillingindustry and purchased a Crown Locked Van approved for use by Customs and Excise. The vehicle was put to work for the Scottish Grain Distillers in Edinburgh, now part of Diageo plc
- In 1978, Russell added a rail connection from the adjacent running line into the site at Gartcosh. Russell started running open top containers on a daily train from Cumbria to Gartcosh for Ravenscraig.
- In 1979, Russell bought RD Spittal Ltd & Storage Services Ltd.
- In 1981, Russell added general warehousing/distribution to its services.
- In 1983, Russell acquired Deanside Transit Ltd in Hillington and opened their second rail terminal in Hillington and in 1984/85 opened their 3rd and 4th terminals in Inverness and Aberdeen.
- In the early ‘80s, Carntyne purchased four stainless steel tankers to transfer quantities of bulk spirit from distillery to cask. Steady development of business through distilling and brewery customers led to a fleet of approximately 25 vehicles and 80 trailers by the mid-late 80’s. At the time, the work was undertaken for the Distillers Company Ltd, renamed United Distillers and now Diageo.
- In 1985, Russell added bonded warehousing to its Hillington operation.
- In 1990, Russell opened its 5th rail terminal in Grantham.
- In 1991, intermodal rail transport was introduced and in 1993, Russell opened their International Transport Department.
- In 1993, Russell’s Contract Packing operation opened, introducing value added services.
- In 1994, Carntyne Transport strengthened its operations with the acquisition of local transport company McKechnie Motors Ltd of Girvan, Ayrshire.
- In 2002, Carntyne Transport further strengthened its offering with the purchase of Tomatin based transport company W&F Kelly Ltd.
- In 2004, Russell opened their trailer manufacturing division to build and refurbish vehicles and trailers.
- In 2008, three further rail terminals were opened at Telford, Barking and Inverness. Russell also purchased the Coatbridge depot.
- In 2011, Russell’s engineering department opened a VOSA test bay.
- In 2012, Russell’s Coatbridge tank wash was opened.
- In 2015, Russell opened the Daventry rail freight terminal, in partnership with Sainsbury’s.
- In 2018, Russell invested in a 265,000 sq. ft. warehouse facility to accommodate the company’s continued business growth. The newly purchased warehouse, situated in Cumbernauld, Glasgow, has added value to our existing warehousing and distribution solutions.
- 2019: The Group is now sitting as one of the top 50 hauliers in the UK with 665 employees, over 250 vehicles, 16 depots and 1,000,000 sq. ft. of warehousing space. The Group offers a wide range of services including transport by road, rail and sea, warehousing, contract packing and e-fulfilment. The Group also offers bulk transport, on-site logistics and cask storage and has a dedicated vehicle maintenance and repair centre for in-house vehicles and equipment as well as third parties.