Our longest serving employee to date, Jimmy Gibb, finally hung up his boiler suit last November after an impressive 34 years service! Jimmy joined John Mitchell in the late 1960's when our fleet of seven vehicles were based at Fitzcharles' garage in the Newhouse Road area of the town, his main responsibility as mechanic being the smooth running of the lorries, which even then regularly travelled the length and breadth of the country. The move to our depot in Earl's Road in the mid 1970's was good news for Mr. Gibb, as he now had a purpose built, well-equipped workshop to look after the ever-expanding fleet of trucks.

The most memorable week of his career was in January 1984 when a group of our vehicles became stuck in the worst snowstorms for many years, which blocked the A9 at Dalwhinnie for almost a week. Jimmy was part of the rescue team despatched from Grangemouth and spent 3 days working in temperatures as low as minus 17, digging out and repairing the trucks to get them back into service. During his time with us our head mechanic has also done a fair bit of driving too and has had a lot of involvement in our innovative and progressive load transhipment facility.

We all wish to thank Jimmy for his considerable and invaluable contribution to our business. Here's to a long and happy retirement!

The Cairter's Ball

The Leapark Hotel in Grangemouth was the place to be on the evening of Friday November 22nd. When our annual party, this year known as 'The Cairters Ball' took place. This event is organised as a thank you to our customers, suppliers, appointed staff and friends to celebrate, as another business year draws to a close. A local salsa band, whose 'stage' took the form of one of our trucks, parked at the front door of the hotel, welcomed our guests. Once inside partygoers gathered in the reception area before being piped to the dining tables by Pipe Major David Hutton of the Gleneagles hotel. After a superb meal, dancing to a ceildh band and entertainer Jaquie James got everyone on their feet and worked off a few calories!

Half way through the evening, alternative piping band The Gutty Slippers invaded the hall and provided a brilliant foot-tapping repertoire of many 'weel kent' Scottish tunes. A charity auction, raffle, more dancing and the ever popular, 'sing a long', rounded off a very enjoyable and successful evening. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended, for again making this a fantastic night.