“These are the people you don’t hear about… we are so proud of our workers.”
The boss of a Montrose-based shipping firm has spoken of his pride in the efforts of his workforce during the Covid-19 crisis.
Rix Shipping has continued to operate throughout the pandemic.
It provides essential services such as the loading and unloading of ships and warehousing services.
A large part of the firm’s work is providing services for agricultural firms.
‘People are so important’
Managing director James Doyle praised the support from his workforce at rising to the challenges of coronavirus.
He said: “If you’re in logistics you have to continue operating and that’s what we did. Our group of people took that challenge on.
“These are the people you don’t hear about, who continue coming into work every day and doing their job and that’s what they did.
“We are so proud of our workers. We’re still a family business at heart. People are important and we recognise what they’ve done. They’ve been fantastic.”
Ambitious plans
Rix Shipping has lodged plans to take over an entire street in Montrose to create a new renewables division.
The £1.5 million development, which is currently going through the planning process, could create 50 new jobs.
Mr Doyle said the company was hopeful of capitalising on the Seagreen project, which has its operations and maintenance base at the Port of Montrose.
“We are pretty confident we will get planning for the development,” he said.
“It will be a fantastic development. It will build on the Seagreen work that Montrose Port Authority has secured.
“We will tender for provision of services for Seagreen and believe we have strategic assets that will be useful for them.
“Our role could be elements such as crew transfers, providing offshore wind technicians and maintenance work.”
Multi-million pound investments
The development, running the length of America Street, intends to partially knock down a listed building that was the property of Joseph Johnston Salmon Fishers until 1978.
If the firm gains planning permission it will be the latest in a long line of multi-million-pound investments in Angus.
In 2015, Rix spent £1m replacing a rundown building in Meridian Street to develop a modern bulk storage facility and a year later invested £1.6m in creating a 42,000sq ft cereals and commodities warehouse.
In 2018, the company brought the biggest materials handler to the east coast of Scotland – a German-made Liebherr LH110 – an investment of £1m.
“We’ve been in Montrose for more than 60 years and we continue to invest,” Mr Doyle added.
Financial progress in 2019
Newly filed accounts for the year ending December 31 2019 for Rix Shipping (Scotland) Limited, which covers the Montrose operation, showed revenues of £2.5m, up from £2.2m in 2018.
Pre-tax profits were £417,000, almost double 2018’s surplus total of £226,000.
Mr Doyle said the firm had continued to trade “solidly” last year, with an uplift in December in the run-up to Brexit.
Rix Shipping (Scotland) Ltd is part of Yorkshire-based company JR Rix and Sons Ltd.
The parent company showed revenues of £509m and pre-tax profits of £12.1m in 2019.
