It was with surprise and delight that John Lawrie staff and clients picked up a copy of the Press and Journal’s special “Forty years of Forties” supplement celebrating four decades of production from the first major supply of North Sea oil.

The Aberdeen-based newspaper published a copy of its edition from Monday, 3 November 1975 and at the forefront of one of the pages was an advert for John Lawrie with the heading “We’re cleaning up the north east.”

The advert states:

“Literally and figuratively – John Lawrie – the north east’s leading skip container specialist’s branch at Evanton now covers the area from Tain to Inverness for industrial, building, factory and site clearance.

“Now opened, a new scrap yard and non-ferrous warehouse at Evanton Industrial Estate enables us to pay top prices for cast iron, steel and all grades of non-ferrous metals.

Referring to industrial waste collection:

“This system is recognised as the most efficient method of clearing industrial waste from your factory, workshop or premises – and you save on costs all the way.”

When the Forties field began producing oil from the North Sea, John Lawrie had already been operating in Aberdeen for around 40 years having been originally founded as a scrap metal merchant by Mr John Lawrie.

As the Forties field developed into one of the North Sea’s main oil producers, the John Lawrie Group diversified and became one of Scotland’s leading privately owned businesses, employing around 100 staff across the globe.

The company is now doing a lot more than ‘cleaning up the north east’ as the advert states, as we have three divisions – metals, tubulars and decommissioning.

As the great oil producing fields like Forties have aged, the demand for decommissioning services has increased and John Lawrie Group is ideally placed to offer these services to the oil and gas sector. Just as John Lawrie was there to celebrate the first oil production during the 1970s, the company has progressively developed its expertise in the deconstruction, processing, reuse, recycling and disposal of redundant oilfield and subsea materials.

Much has changed since our black and white newspaper advert from 1975, however our company commitment to providing the best service and solution to our clients remains the same.
What else is still the same? Take a closer look at the two adverts and you’ll notice that our Aberdeen phone number has remained a constant over the past four decades. Some things really don’t change!If you need to call us it's still 01224 871844.