Lawson+Donaldson

=Lawson Donaldson Limited=

Company Number: SC001417 Date of Incorporation: 3 December 1884 Contact Details: Calder Road, East Hermiston, Edinburgh, EH14 4AJ Operating Details: Active Other names (if known): Peter Lawson & Son Limited (1885-1962), Lawson Donaldson Seeds Limited (1962-1993) Function of Company*: other wholesale (5190- in this case seeds and agricultural items) Headquarters/Base of Operations Location: Currie, Edinburgh. Formerly based in Leith Area of Operation: Sells stock nationwide and exported to Europe


 * Taken from Standard Industrial Classification 2003, as used by Companies House in 2010

Records
Most of the records of this company were destroyed by fire in 1977 at the company’s previous factory/distribution centre in Leith. There are two surviving minute books (one of directors meetings 1934-1975, and one of AGMs 1885-1977) a share transfer book (1942-1968) and some miscellaneous correspondence from the 1960s. These records are held privately, and access is only available by request to the above contact details.

Some court records relating to this company exist in the National Archives of Scotland

Company History
This company operated as the Peter Lawson Seed and Nursery Company (also known as Lawson’s Seed and Nursery Company and Peter Lawson & Son), before being incorporated as Peter Lawson & Son Limited in 1885. There are records of a merchant named Peter Lawson in the National Archives of Scotland dating back to the late eighteenth century in Bo’ness, and some records in the 1790s show a Peter Lawson as a ‘nurseryman’ or ‘seedsman’ in Edinburgh involved in planting trees on private estates. It also appears that records of Peter Lawson & Son relating to agricultural trade date back to at least 1825.

By the time it was incorporated, the company had an office in London, and appears to have exported seeds to continental Europe. The major factor in the decision to incorporate seems to have been to raise greater capital. The new company had 2085 shares that had been applied and allocated for the price of £5 per share. The directors were all seed merchants, and included James Glenn or Belfast, Robert Inch of Edinburgh, James S Easte of Ahsford, Samuel McDowell of London, John McCulloch of Stranraer and SP Taylor of Edinburgh. David Syme was ‘appointed’ Managing Director (though in reality he carried on his role from the previous company) and the company seems to have ‘inherited’ its premises on King George IV Bridge in Edinburgh from the previous organisation as well. The actual nursery area of the company seems to have been in Corstorphine, to the west of the city centre.

The company seems to have been a profitable entity during the first decades after incorporation. David Syme was replaced on his death by the highly-regarded George Somer in 1902 (who in turn held the post until his death in 1926). Judging from the dividends and payments rewarded to the directors in the minute books, the company was successful up until the end of the 1920s, though it does not appear to have expanded much from its original form. It also appears to have had difficulty finding warehouse property in the Edinburgh area. From the 1900s (with the exception of Mr Easte) most of the directors came from the Edinburgh area, although they were all from an agricultural merchant background.

However the company endured a very difficult decade in the 1930s, as first the worldwide economic depression reduced demand for agricultural supplies: J Nagel, the then chairman, described the situation as one in which it was ‘practically impossible to make a profit’ in 1933. The growing political uncertainty in the latter-half of the decade hamstrung business with continental Europe, which seems to have been particularly important for the company. Although the Second World War stabilized the business to a certain extent (aside from the company’s lorry being seized for the wartime effort), the company’s directors chafed under the restrictions of wartime controls placed on the business.

By 1945 the company enjoyed a healthy turnover of £30,000, and appeared to have left the earlier difficulties behind it. In 1948 the company acquired a subsidiary, John Donaldson & Co. Ltd, another Edinburgh seed merchant. This purchase not only expanded the company, but also allowed it the opportunity to construct much-needed warehouse facilities on Donaldson’s site in Carpet Lane, Leith. To encourage trading in the Republic of Ireland, the company established a small subsidiary in Dublin named Peter Lawson & Son (Ireland), in 1949 which enabled it to navigate past the difficult trade relationship that existed between Ireland and the United Kingdom after the War. However by the early 1950s high stocks of seeds and overproduction, coupled with an extremely wet summer, sent the company into debt and financial difficulty. In 1953 it received an offer from William Goldsmith of Ipswich for a controlling stake of its shares, which it advised its shareholders to accept as it was facing extreme financial difficulty. As a subsidiary of Goldsmith (later Goldsmith Bros Ltd), the company moved headquarters, first to 46 Bridge Street in Edinburgh, and then (in 1966) out to the site in Leith. Goldsmith has also acquired the Gayton Mills Company (in Norfolk) and Little and Ballantyne of Carlisle. In 1962 Goldsmith’s amalgamated Peter Lawson and Son Ltd with John Donaldson Ltd, liquidating Donaldson and renaming the company Lawson Donaldson. In 1967 the company suffered ‘disastrous’ losses, but the parent company persisted with the Scottish subsidiary until the early 1970s, when it appears to have been sold on.

The company was acquired by the holding company Gibbs-Palmer (which acquired a large interest in the company in the later 1970s), which subsequently became the Solus Group. Now operates as a wholesale arm of the Solus Garden and Leisure group- see []

Thanks to Steven Walker for allowing access to the above materials