IIRC Saudi private plates were blue
Not sure if its clear enough for an arabic reader to decipher the top line. I assume that tells what country itâs registered in.
Tunis 1990. Promotor lorry being used as an anchor. Not sure what our insurance company would think of that!
Your take on the Promotor versus competitors was very interesting.
My take would be as follows.:
Promotor got into exhibitions by subbing transport for Bannon Intl who were a leading exhibition contractor mainly in Eastern Europe in the late 70âs. Peter Calderwood saw an opportunity to take over their business and set up Promotor as an exhibition contractor by taking over Bannonâs customers, a slightly devious venture but perfectly legal in a capitalist society. Bannon were very badly run by Bob Glover who was naive enough to believe that his subcontractors wouldnât screw him. He had a couple of excellent managers in the form of Martin Hudson and Paul Flannery. I was sales manager at F.G.Hammond at the time and was looking for transport business and approached Bannon who virtually welcomed me with open arms having lost out to Promotor. We formed a joint venture for the Baghdad and Tehran International Fairs and the feeling was that they wanted to get their own back on Promotorsâs perceived perfidy.
At the first Baghdad Fair I was on site with Paul Flannery and Phil Pugsley, having secured about a third of the business, when we got the news that Bannon had filed for bankruptcy. Martin Hudson had already left owing to the severe downturn in their business and was out in Baghdad at the time working on the Metro contract. That night we all had dinner together at one of the mazgouf restaurants. I had already established that F.G. Hammond were willing to take on the responsibility for the show and they were busy in the UK dealing with our customers. Paul announced that he had a job waiting when he returned to UK but we all worked hard to make the exhibition a success and we organised the return of freight to the UK.
We also had to take on the upcoming Tehran Fair and Martinâs contract at the Metro had expired and he had returned to the UK and offered to help us as he had (via Bannon days) a contact with an exhibition contractor in Tehran run by a Swiss guy called Markus Sprecher. We took another third of the British exhibitors at this exhibition and Promotor had most of the rest.
While sharing a room with Martin at the Hilton (Esteghlal) we saw an opportunity to start our own company to capitalise on Martinâs expertise in exhibitions and mine in overland transport.
On our return to the UK, I left F.G. Hammond and with Martin formed Orient Transport Services. That was 1985. Over the next few years we took more and more of Promotorâs business in Tehran and Baghdad to the extent that in the end we completely took over the major exhibitions including the internationals, the health cares, and most importantly the Oil and Gas.
So the story ends in Promotorâs demise and the revenge of Martin Hudson and Paul Flannery!
Tunis 1990. We were setting up an âAll British Trade Fairâ.
Andy. Having read your brief synopsis of the, in the most part, good natured rivalry between Hammond/Orient and Promotor International I readily concur with many of your comments but not all. However, your comments concerning Bannons and how ruthless Peter was got me thinking.
So in reply to your post and I will try to keep this brief we have to start at the beginning with Peter Calderwood who set up the company âPromotorâ in 1970 to see the whole picture. You have already indicated in your last post and one a year or two back that you had to watch your back as far as Peter was concerned. Peter was an ideas man always seeking the holy grail. He would see an opening, set up a business, then look for someone with the necessary expertise and contacts to run it. Within a year or two, having acquired the knowledge himself that person would be STD. (shown the door). The first person Peter used was Chris Sly. The two of them worked for Fords in the 60âs and Chris had good contacts at Dunton. However, a few years later he was STD as he wasnât needed anymore.
Bannons were fair game as far as Peter was concerned. I was there in our office the morning Bannons were informed of our intention to set up our own Exhibition Service Company. There was much excitement. Everyone was fired up. âWe did a much better job than them and built the business upâ Peter said later. Flights, hotels, furniture hire were all added to the mix and a fully integrated service was offered to the clients.
The Anglo Yugo business and Zadenca was another good point in question. Zadenca, a Yugoslav, worked for a competitor. Peter enticed her and her hoppo to come to Promotor and run the business. A few years later she and her hoppo were STD. As i said, Peter was a ruthless man where business was concerned.
Promotor had their own workshop to look after the maintenance and repairs to the fleet of lorries and trailers. He put a guy in charge but after a few years realised the workshop would run just as well without him so he was STD.
Standfitting was another area he looked at. We handled the transport for Pye Unicam who were part of the Philips Group. Pye owned their own Octonorm System and built the stands for the whole group. A company near Cambridge maintained the equipment and built the stands mainly in the Commie block. Peter took on a guy with standfitting experience, cut the rates by combining it with other business we had at the same exhibition so reducing haulage charges and was awarded the contract. Once the business was up and running the chap in charge was STD.
Promotor Travel was another instance of his aggressive nature. He and Suzy P. were an item. They set up the travel business and looked to offer travel arrangements to exhibitors at the shows we serviced. All went well until they fell out a few years later. Here Peter didnât get all his own way though as Suzy moved herself, the two travel tarts and the business up to Sevenoaks and continued as PM Travel. By then Peter though had the knowledge and we continued offering travel services which he and I ran together.
The Showhaul business was integrated into Promotor when they got into difficulties. Richard Dynes, founder of Showhaul, stayed on for a short time before he was STD.
The multi million pound Ford contract which was won in the early 90âs needed a guy who knew the ropes to run it. He lasted for just over a year before he was STD.
Finally it was the turn of Dave Stagg. Staggie had been with the company for many years and worked his way up to Director of Exhibitions but in the early 90âs he kinda lost his way. He was also STD. Peter told me later that getting rid of Staggie was the hardest thing he ever had to do.
So that left me but Peter couldnât get rid of me even if heâd wanted to. In the late 80âs I was doing quite nicely. My wife and I had a large old farmhouse with three cottages down in Dorset. But Promotor, or should I say its banks, needed some financial guarantees to be in place. The banks were getting a bit uppertty and Peter asked me if I could help out. For that help I took almost half the equity in the company, he held the remainder.
However, by about 92/3 I had had enough. The Baghdad Fair and other shows in Iraq meant I was spending up to four months a year there. Tehran Fair plus shows like Iran Med also meant extended time away from home as well as the odd exhibition in Turkey, Saudi, Algiers or Dubai. I had been on the go, at the sharp end for twelve years. It was not just living out of a suitcase abroad that was taking its toll. When I was in the UK I shared a flat with Peter which only allowed me to see my family at weekends. I decided enough was enough.
We worked out a severance package and the idea was Peter would employ an âExhibition Managerâ but then out of the blue the Ford Contract materialised. Peter did most of the work and it was awarded to us but he still needed help in setting it up. He asked me to stay on which I did for another year but by then he had lost all interest in exhibitions.
So getting back to the original point under discussion Andy. I have to disagree with your concluding comments in your post. Right up to the end we were still the dominant Exhibition Service Company operating in both Baghdad and Tehran offering the full service package. You only have to look at the attached brochure we put out in 89. The story doesnât end in Promotors demise and Martin and Paul didnât get their revenge. It was a combination of my deciding my family should come first and the winning of the lucrative Ford contract that finally allowed Orient to achieve the number one slot they had always craved but could never attain whilst Promotor held that accolade.
To conclude, Iâd just like to say in a lighthearted way, youâre still that itch that needs scratching, but we luv yer still
Thanks for that potted history, most of which I agree with, however Iâm afraid that your recollections are a little rose tinted! Itâs pointless to discuss percentages but after 1986 Orient slowly replaced Promotor as the major service provider in Baghdad and Tehran. For example at the 1988 Baghdad International Fair we ran 23 trailer loads for 600 services alone plus we had eight trailers for Matrix Churchill and handled a large GPT stand plus Hyster and Leyland Trucks among many others. âSome itch!â as Churchill would have said!
When I left Promotor in 1987 I started working as a freelancer for Cintrex doing expos, mostly in Eastern Europe - although I did one Baghdad just before Gulf War I - and by 1988 I had computerised the customs documentation which meant that when lorries arrived at the warehouse to load for an expo instead of 3 of us working through the night with typewriters to produce the necessary pile and piles of paperwork - and making endless mistakes - I could actually complete the paperwork on my own in about 2 hours and the driver hardly had to wait. The computer did all the maths and so my paperwork was 100% correct. No more using carbon paper for 10 pages at a time where the bottom copy was almost blank!
On arrival at Leizpig, Brno, Budapest, Plovdiv etc all the Custom officers were so impressed by my paperwork being the best they had ever seen I was customs cleared days before everyone else. They loved me because normally they had to plough through endless paperwork errors and with mine this was no longer necessary. I was even invited to drink with them as Iâd save them so much time.
Naturally this was noticed by the clients and soon I made big inroads into Promotor and Keptowe client bases⌠Staggie was furious and told his drivers to keep me away from his clients. But it was too late.
Really annoying was the Berlin wall came down in 1989 and the East European shows virtually stopped dead as no one knew who owned whatâŚ
So I played my part too in a small way.
I never heard that Staggie was sacked! That amazed me⌠He was well organised but not very good at being pleasant with the staff.
Morning Efes. In some ways Daveâs departure didnât come as a shock. As you say, Staggie had always been a difficult person to deal with but in the early 90âs he seemed to get worse. I noticed at the âBritain in Tunisiaâ event, he organised, that both he and Martine were not the exuberant and outgoing couple I had seen in the past. I am wondering if they knew then that Martine was seriously ill. After the event Dave seemed to be going through the motions. He continued for a while but finally Peter thought it better he leave.
Later, after setting up on his own, he popped up again. Iran Med was planned and we were asked by the Trade Association tasked with forming a British group to quote for the freight and other connected services. Imagine our surprise when Dave got the job. I took this personally and set out to punt for the business even though we werenât appointed. We were determined to win and offered our full service including flights and hotels.
There were about fifteen or sixteen companies participating and I personally visited every one even flying up to Edinburgh on âGood Fridayâ they worked that day in Scotland. Dave finally picked up three clients plus the trade association who were duty bound to use him but I picked up the rest both for freight and their travel arrangements. There really wasnât enough freight for two forwarders to fight over but Dave had to be onsite in Tehran as he was the appointed agent. It was not a pleasant sight. I met him in the pavilion just after he arrived. It was a cordial meeting but he looked completely lost and out of it. I really felt sorry for him.
At the end of Iran Med we went our separate ways. I never saw 'Staggie again. It was Liz Calderwood, Peters ex, who rang me later to tell me Martine had died and it was Liz again a few years later who rang me and told me Dave had been found dead in a hotel room in London. A sad end.
Actually Staggieâs wife wasnât âMartineâ but âMarchienâ pronounced âMarkeenâ (an odd Dutch name). She died in March 1995 (just looked it up). I see she was living in Larkfield! Dave and Marchien lived previously on King George V Hill, Tunbridge Wells (known locally as Pig Hill) so I didnât know theyâd moved. When he called me for a job interview at his house in Jan 1979 he told me his address as King George V Hill and i replied âI know it, Pig Hill !â. I could tell he wasnât at all amused but itâs true that everyone knows it as Pig Hill
The both of them smoked like chimneys. Dave was a funny fellow but he did have a fine sense of humour despite his rather grumpy side. I remember the totally politically incorrect picture he put up on the wall of a lady doing something intimate with a Coca Cola bottle with a note about George Fardell and the use of his empties
Shame it was such a sad end - he absolutely doted on Marchien
Well Sandway, much as I love you, your spectacles are extremely rosy. In fact Orient had the lionâs share of that Iranmed and I was out on site and witnessed the state of poor old Staggie.
He had formed Dave Stagg Associates and taken on Phil Dowrick as his sidekick. We had been especially helpful to him but he had selected Promotor to do his freight which greatly surprised us.
He then organised the Tunisia exhibition and went out there with Marchien. On his return she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died shortly afterwards and Dave was indeed a broken man.
For old times sake we employed him at Orient but he was in another world and had to abandon an exhibition he was organising in southern Africa at which point he left our employ.
He drifted for several years, sold his house and bought a houseboat in Yalding. He became involved with some charitable work in the Gambia and we shipped out some charity cargo for him.
We were absolutely devastated when we learnt that he had been found dead in a London hotel room. I attended his funeral in Southampton but donât think anyone from Promotor was there although George Fardell made it as did the exhibitions man from Hawker Siddeley (whose name I canât remember).
Efes:
Actually Staggieâs wife wasnât âMartineâ but âMarchienâ pronounced âMarkeenâ (an odd Dutch name). She died in March 1995 (just looked it up). I see she was living in Larkfield! Dave and Marchien lived previously on King George V Hill, Tunbridge Wells (known locally as Pig Hill) so I didnât know theyâd moved. When he called me for a job interview at his house in Jan 1979 he told me his address as King George V Hill and i replied âI know it, Pig Hill !â. I could tell he wasnât at all amused but itâs true that everyone knows it as Pig HillThe both of them smoked like chimneys. Dave was a funny fellow but he did have a fine sense of humour despite his rather grumpy side. I remember the totally politically incorrect picture he put up on the wall of a lady doing something intimate with a Coca Cola bottle with a note about George Fardell and the use of his empties
Shame it was such a sad end - he absolutely doted on Marchien
Yes, you are right Efes. It was Markeen and it would have been 95 when Liz rang me as I had left the company a couple of years before. I stayed with the two of them maybe half a dozen times at Larkfield. Its a wonder they both lasted as long as they did. They had the most unhealthy lifestyle of anyone Iâve known. Smoking, drinking, fry ups and very little in the way of exercise. Not good for yer.
Efes. Jazzandy said Markeen died after returning from the Tunisia exhibition which was in May 1990 but you say she died in March 1995, thats almost five years later. Sounds like somebodyâs confused.
I have attached another photo from that North Africa event showing one of our best customers, JCB. It was a marvellous sight watching their demo drivers handle them. They could even make them dance.
Shipping out tonight from Plymouth for warmer climes. Donât have one of those fancy smart phones so may be out of contact for a while.
I can confirm that Marchien Stagg died March 15 1995. I think it was our Dave Stagg that died in the 4th quarter 2001 in Camden.
Finally ensconced in our winter quarters. Shorts dug out of the bottom drawer and on for the next four months. Just stocked up with G & T, vino, oh and some food. Sun was already waiting for us. Now to chill out in the best way possible and its all to do with the weather.
Have attached a photo of our John Preece at the 87ish Baghdad International Trade Fair with his onsite transport. Not sure what license he would need to drive it but knowing John he would have one authenticated by Sami Sirricci or some other outlandish character.
On the trailer are just a few of the small exhibits or boxes of literature we handled for 90% of the companies at the the Fair. This was where the real money was made. We would have trailer loads of small consignments with a minimum charge of 1m3. Coupled with the charges for documentation and customs clearance both in and at the closing of the event meant they were good earners for the company. We didnât bother much with one off full loads unless they were our regular customers as there wasnât the profit margin there. We left that mainly to Davies Turner.
A couple of photos of hops from F/B. It was a toss up wether to show them on the Kent Transport page or on here but as they reminded me of the time I loaded hops from Slovenia whilst driving for Promotor I knew this was the place for them.
Of course in the late 70âs early 80âs we just knew the area as Yugoslavia but it was in the area south of Maribor that one day I was directed to pick up a full load of hops. Not knowing what to expect I was wondering if it would be a load of hop pokes, but no, it was similar to the load shown in the photos. I had a supercube trailer on and it was filled to the brim which I believe brought me up to my limit of eighteen tons. Customs was done in Maribor. The only other time I cleared customs there was when I loaded twenty tons of black plastic bin liners right in the centre of town.
My load of hops were bound for a farm just to the north of Paddock Wood. I didnât tip many of my return loads but as it was convenient to our depot I was asked to tip this one. It was great being back on the farm again as much of my early driving experience was done collecting fruit in the same area.
The hops in the photos were mainly Kent hops with just a few from Sussex. They were loaded near Paddock Wood and bound for Germany.
Its sad to say that Kelly whose lorries are shown in the photos have decided they can continue in the business no longer due to unfair competition from abroad. They are closing the gates at the end of this month together with two other Kent hauliers.
I too once loaded hops out of Yugo some years back (I have no idea of the date) and after traversing Europe and arriving back in the UK and clearing customs at Dover I was supplied with new paperwork and sent to deliver those same hops in Belgium. So out of the docks and straight back onto the boat to Belgium.
Promotor worked all the countries of North Africa at some time or other but the one where we were most prominent was Algeria. In the late 70âs we shipped freight to the Algiers International Trade Fair and provided customs clearance and on site handling. It was never a huge event though. Nottsnortherner said he and two other guys delivered to the fair in the late 70âs but after that either the trailers were shipped over unaccompanied from the south of France or the work was subbed out to French hauliers. I think the main problem for us was finding return loads as the south of France was an area we rarely visited.
The exhibitions in the 70âs were organised by the British Overseas Trade board and Promotor, although not appointed as freight agents, picked up most of the business especially transporting the large standfitting panels that, ten years later, I would use again. Dave Stagg handled the work himself mainly because the business language of Algeria was French and Dave spoke it fluently. Around 84/85 very few British companies thought it worthwhile attending the fair and the BOTB withdrew support. It was at this point Promotor stepped in and offered to provide those same services the BOTB were offering but without the financial support. We purchased space for a British Group in the fairground, built stands and still provided the freight service as we had done previously.
I got involved, even though I didnât speak French, overseeing the unloading of trailers, handling customs clearance and unpacking exhibits in about 83/4. Dave briefed me and all went well. I canât say I enjoyed working there. Algiers wasnât exactly on the tourist map. Dave booked me into the same hotel he had been using for the previous few years, the âHotel Albertâ. It was just up from the port and although from a distance the old French architecture looked appealing as soon as you entered it was obvious it wasnât the most salubrious of places. One up from a doss house was the best way to describe it but maybe thats being a little unkind as the staff tried their best to make you comfortable. Bigget problem, after getting back from a hard days work, was to find the taps only supplied a dribble of lukewarm water. There really wasnât much to do in the evenings. I would wander down to the harbour and try to find somewhere to eat but apart from the odd local bar there wasnât much there so would eat in the hotel most evenings.
My second trip was more interesting as that was the first event organised by Promotor. We had Stan Mountain, ex Coles Cranes exhibition manager, build the stands for us and we shipped them out on one of our supercube trailers together with the exhibits. The trailer went unaccompanied from a port in the south of France. Stan arranged his own accommodation, obviously heâd heard of the âAlbertâ. I helped build the stands and then Stan flew home whilst I stayed on. At the close of the fair I dismantled the stands as well as repacked the exhibits. It gave me more to do but it really was a boring old show.
Following on from my last post concerning the Algiers International Trade Fair I have a few photos left. They mainly show the construction of the stands. Stan Mountain built the lightweight panels using 2" x 1" timber and a felt material covering. Two of the panels were hinged together and these formed the corners and gave the stand its rigidity. It also meant it was, or could be, a one man operation. However, you needed a mate to put the fasciaâs up. We used this idea in a number of events for the next few years in Libya and Iraq but it was best suited to low attendance shows as it wasnât very robust and the felt would mark easily. Algiers wasnât the ideal place for it but it lasted for the duration of the show which was all we wanted.
I helped Stan erect the stands which was simple enough and then placed the exhibits on or nearby them ready for the exhibitors to arrive. Dave Stagg also flew in for a few days but I noted he didnât stay in the âHotel Albertâ. Hmm, that had me thinking but next time I went to Algiers I was still back in the same hotel. However, a couple of years later I did progress to a half decent one and it even had a swimming pool. But thats another story.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all those followers of this thread a âVery Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Yearâ.
I was still with the company in 92 and the Ford contract was taking up more and more of our time. However, forty one years earlier a ship was built in Glasgow and named the âMV Maid of Ashtonâ and was operated by the Caledonian Steam Packet Company providing ferry services in Scotland.
In seventy three she was sold and her new owners brought her down to London where she was given a new name, the âRS Hispaniolaâ. Initially she was used as a Gentlemens Club but later she became a floating restaurant and moored on Victoria Embankment just upriver from Hungerford Bridge opposite Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Gardens.
In 92 one of the âSuitsâ at Fords wanted to earn some brownie points and suggested it would be the ideal location to launch the âSpecial Edition Ford Fiesta Fanfareâ obviously not worrying about the logistics of the job as that could be left to others to sort out, namely Promotor.
We were given a very brief synopsis of Fordâs requirements and told to get on with it. They had already been in contact with the shipâs owners and no doubt enjoyed a (free) slap up meal on board whilst ascertaining it was a suitable venue. Promotor had to work out how to get a âFord Fiesta Fanfareâ on board together with a plinth and a few other bits.
You couldnât just drive on board as there was only a pedestrian gangway so it would have to be craned and do you know what was involved in closing part of one of the busiest roads in Central London to set up a crane? Donât even think about it. We had to get the necessary permissions from the police, including the river police, the council and a multitude of others such as the underground and electricity and gas companies. It just wasnât on.
We thought about it for a while and realised the only way it could be done was to bring the car in on a barge then using a floating crane to hoist it on board. And thats what we did. Still wasnât going to be easy though and as we hadnât had the Ford Contract for long nothing must go wrong so Peter and I decided I should handle the operation myself. After talking to various people and companies, many of whom could see nothing but mega bucks for themselves if they were involved, the simplest of ideas was offered to us by a chap who owned his own small barge and worked up and down the Thames every day. He was the dustman and his barge was fitted out with a crane which was used to lift the rubbish off various floating establishments. It turned out his crane had a lifting capacity in excess of the weight of the car and the necessary reach. We were in business.
Iâd had the car and other bits loaded onto one of our single car transporters the previous day, so early in the morning I set out for Woolwich and a small quay hidden away at the back of some old warehouses. Here I met our dustman and we loaded the car, using the crane, onto his barge and set off up river. Of course, many years later, I curse that I took so few photos. Just a few of the car on its plinth on the ship with some trumpeters playing a âFanfareâ over it. It was about seven in the morning that we arrived alongside the RS Hispaniola and within an hour we had the plinth on board and the car about to be lifted onto it. Iâd had some spreaders specially made which enabled us to hoist the car without damaging the bodywork. Once the job was done I gave the car a polish and that was it until mid afternoon when the dustman returned to collect it and take us back to Woolwich.
One of the best little jobs I was involved with whilst with Promotor.
