Following the Royal visit by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in 2017, Gray & Adams Ltd., headquartered in Fraserburgh and one of the UK’s premium manufacturing companies, has received further Royal recognition. The company’s outstanding achievement in temperature-controlled vehicle design and manufacture has been recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation for its double deck trailer design.
Conceived in 1965, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards in UK business. Previous winners include Dyson, Jaguar Landrover and JCB. This year, 220 UK businesses have been recognised by the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise including 66 for innovation.
Founded in 1957 in Fraserburgh by Jim Gray and Jim Adams, Gray & Adams has grown from humble beginnings to become the UK market leader in temperature-controlled manufacturing, with an annual turnover in excess of 150 million pounds and employing over 700 people across the Group. The company dominates the UK cold chain from farm to fork, and supplies double deck trailers to most major supermarkets, including Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, as well as blue-chip household brands like DPD, John Lewis Waitrose, M&S and Warburtons. Whatever you can buy in a supermarket, from fresh, chilled produce to frozen products and pharmaceuticals, the chances are it will have travelled in a Gray & Adams semi-trailer or rigid. Over the years, the company has won several awards for its innovative and bespoke products that are extensively used in the UK and exported around the world.
With over 60 years’ experience in manufacturing and working from its now world-class facility in Fraserburgh, Gray & Adams has a unique understanding of its customer’s needs and recognises the real commercial pressures in the UK cold chain supply. Having pioneered temperature-controlled lifting deck trailer technology in the nineties, the company continues to be at the cutting edge of technology, delivering practical commercial solutions for its customers, as well as understanding the impact of its activities on the environment. As an ever-growing driver in its industry, Gray & Adams ensures all of its products consider the environment in order to remain at the forefront of sustainable innovation to reduce the carbon footprint of its products.
The business, whose family legacy lives on in its current Directors, James and Peter Gray, maintains its people are the key to its success, and it invests heavily in its staff to ensure their continuous improvement. As one of Fraserburgh’s largest local employers, Gray & Adams is proud to have developed many young engineers and skilled tradespersons over the years and is committed to supporting young people through its apprenticeship scheme. Having worked hard to achieve a reputation for quality, innovation and first-class customer service, it places an important emphasis on attracting, developing and retaining the most talented people in the industry.
James and Peter Gray, Joint Managing Directors, commented,
“In these challenging times, we very much hope the recognition this prestigious award brings will bring a small amount of cheer and encouragement to our employees in the North East of Scotland, and across the UK.
We are massively appreciative of our highly skilled engineering teams and our manufacturing operatives that allow us to produce our world-class products. We would also like to thank our very loyal customers and partners, without whose assistance and support we would be unable to enjoy such highly respected recognition.”
