The Aberdeen Shore Porter’s Society
1498. Six years after Columbus discovered America a group of porters, or ‘Pynours’ who worked at Aberdeen Harbour (Britain’s oldest plc, founded in 1136) formed the Aberdeen Shore Porters’ Society…
It’s still trundling along today, its pride in its history obvious from the unchanged name and antique logo that still blazes away in signwriters gill caps somewhat anachronistically on any number of the latest Scania and Mercedes rigs.
The Shore Porters society took over another removals firm in 1992 in Richmond, but they’re still true to their roots: ‘we store anything from a needle to an anchor’ has a whiff of briney about it. It’s now ‘a private Partnership comprising seven partners, five retired members and one widow’.
There’s a solid brand truth in all this iconography: one of Britain’s oldest companies looks both as old as it is, and as contemporary as it needs to be.