History of Riddochs
An short history of Riddochs written by Sandy Tough about 1999. He writes:
Following 8 years working as a railway clerk and 3 years in the Royal Navy, Sandy Tough joined AG & WJ Riddoch Timber Merchants as an office clerk in 1953 shortly after the big wind blow in January of that year. At this time the company started an expansion of their operations and in 1954 moved from their small office in Tarryblake Estate to Mannochhill, a former manse in Rothiemay.
The office staff increased from around 10 to around 20 over the years and Sandy worked his way up to be Office Manager. Sandy recalls that in the late 1950s there would have been over 400 employees and around 20 small mills all sending their stock sheets, working hours and details into the office where wages and sales and timber stocks were all calculated manually.
Following modernisation and changes of ownership the office complex was moved to Elgin in the early 70s. After the purchase of the company by James Jones in 1989, Sandy Tough and his fellow Riddoch office staff was based at Mosstodloch where the company name was still used mainly for fencing products. By 2002 the amalgamation and updated computerisation of the office processes was completed and centralised in Jones office in Larbert, Stirling and the Riddoch brand name dropped but well before this time Sandy had fully retired even from part time working.
In 1999 Sandy wrote a brief note from memory of the main people he worked with over the years at Riddochs and this note is now included in the attached PDF.
Some office staff and manager names he mentions are: Peter Milne, Willie Geddes, Margaret McEwan, Mrs Young, Isobel Reid, William Loggie, Elizabeth McIntosh, Margaret Bruce, Janet Cowie, TH Woolridge, John Morrison, Gordon Beange, Willie MacPherson, Willie Munro, Robert Thomson, Ian Richards, George Kemp, Ian Durno, John Tough, Fred Davidson, Donald Scott, WW Macaskill, Ann Milne, Graham Dey, Carol McNee, Kathleen Greig, Alan Clark, Neil Sneddon, Jock Copland and Sandy Mitchell.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Gale 1953, Northeast Scotland , Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills