Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd (pottery manufacturers & Tennent's transport : 1919-1963 : Glasgow, Scotland)

Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland, was a subsidiary of J & R Tennent Ltd , brewers, Glasgow, Scotland. The company was formed by J & R Tennent Ltd in 1919, and set up as a limited liability company in order to look after the company's financial interests. The Memorandum and Articles of Association reads that Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd was set up to carry on numerous business matters, but principally it was to run the Pottery, look after the transport needs of J & R Tennent's, and be a holding company for stocks and shares.

The first directors of Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd were those on the Board of J & R Tennent Ltd, namely, John Alexander Yeaman , Writer to the Signet ; William Auld, a Chartered Accountant and Stockbroker ; William Brown , a retired banker from Polmont ; and James Archibald Campell , a landed proprietor . J A Campbell was related to the Tennent family by marriage.

J & R Tennent Ltd had leased the Possil Pottery for six years from 1916 from McDougall & Sons , and production of bottles began in 1917. In 1920 a decision was made to buy the Possil Pottery. J & R Tennent Ltd acquired the pottery from McDougall & Sons, for GBP 8000, on 6th May 1920. It was then immediately purchased by Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd for GBP 15,000. That same year Cuba, a good customer of J & R Tennent Ltd, who particularly liked the product to be supplied in stoneware bottles, decreed a moratorium, delaying the payments of any debts. Payment for shipments recently received and on the way to Cuba was suspended, and trading effectively ceased with this major part of the market. The situation lasted until January 1921, but demand for the pottery's bottles never recovered.

The end of the 1930s saw a further decline in the demand for stoneware bottles and it was decided a buyer would be sought for the pottery. Companies were approached in an attempt to sell, but finding a buyer proved unsuccessful. With the pottery still supplying J & R Tennent, enough business was generated to ensure that both J & R Tennent Ltd and Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd made a profit. But by 1942 the pottery was also suffering from a lack of skilled workers and so it was finally sold to A & J Main & Co Ltd . In 1963 the Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd company went into voluntary liquidation, with all assets being transferred to J & R Tennent Ltd.

Sources: Kelly, Henry E . Possil Pottery, Tennent, and Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd. Turnbull, Jill . Scottish Pottery. 17th Historical Review ( Scotland, 1995 )

From the guide to the Records of Glasgow Trading & Transport Ltd, pottery manufacturers & Tennent's transport, Glasgow, Scotland, 1919-1964, (Glasgow University Archive Services)