John Menzies is known globally in the aviation industry, though the company had far more humble beginnings right here in Edinburgh.
Leaving a job in publishing in 1833, 25-year-old John opened the first wholesale bookseller in Scotland at 61 Princes Street which stands as Romanes and Paterson today.
John Menzies & Co carried on to be the first Scottish shop to sell The Pickwick Papers, the first published work of Charles Dickens.
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The success of The Pickwick Papers boosted the company, as well as the bookseller being one of the first to sell newspapers such as the Scotsman over the counter.
With Caledonian Railway providing the first service from Edinburgh to London, new opportunities came for the shop and what they could sell.
By the next decade, as rail travel was booming across the country, each railway station needed a stall; and Menzies acquired the rights to a bookstall in almost every corner of Scotland.
In 1855, more newspapers were added to the roster including the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror.
The rise of motorised vehicles only boosted an ever growing brand for Menzies, and the horse and cart method of transportation was on its way out.
When John passed the business onto his sons, John and Charles, the men expanded the business even further, with 13 branches around Scotland by the year 1934.
The Second World War brought opportunities along with disaster, with people purchasing newspapers at an increasing rate to keep up with global affairs.
It wasn’t all positive though, with the Greenock and Partick branches destroyed from an air raid in 1941.
The company continued to grow despite ongoing struggles and made it out the other end of the war, opening their first airport book stall in Edinburgh.
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By 1960, 90 warehouses sat throughout the UK along with 350 railway book stalls and 161 shops on our streets.
The limited company became incorporated, followed by a share issue in 1962, which meant 20% of the business was distributed to employees.
It wasn’t until the 80s that the Menzies brand evolved into what we know it as today, acquiring Scan International Group and Cargosave with the brand handling overnight and heavy freight.
26.5 million newspapers were distributed daily by Menzies, the largest paper round in the UK.
The company knew that taking to the skies was only going to become more popular, and gained more contracts at London Heathrow.
By the late 90s, Menzies announced it was redefining its role, and was in the process of shedding its retail outlets in order to grow in the aviation world.
Before the Princes Street store finally shut its doors the bookseller even made its mark in film.
In the opening scene of Trainspotting, the film's main character Mark Renton can be seen being chased from John Menzies after stealing from the shop.
Funnily enough, the staff at John Menzies weren't exactly strangers to having to deal with shoplifters in real life. The Princes Street store was a magnet for petty thieves.
Around the time of Trainspotting's release, the end was nigh. The decision was made to sell 230 bookstores, as well as 220 children’s toys and games shops.
WHSmith bought the chain of retail shops for £68 million in March 1998, with Menzies moving on to become one of the world’s top three aviation logistics groups as the millennium approached.
By 2008, Menzies Aviation had acquired businesses in the USA, the Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Norway, and many other countries.
Even global recessions and the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption didn’t stop the company from continuing to grow, selling the entire share capital in 2018.
Forsyth Black, the chief executive at Menzies, spoke to the Scotsman about the legacy of the business in 2019.
He said: “Running John Menzies, especially as a Scot, you realise there is a weight of history and a little bit of expectation on you.
“We’re a little bit of a Scottish and an Edinburgh piece of heritage, whilst business is business, we’ve also got to pay attention to that.”
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