In conversation with John on a cloudless day, sat in the Lookout Bar with spectacular views over Troon harbour, it's easy to see why. It's a delightful area and, with the Isle of Arran on the western horizon, picturesque too.  Oh, and if you're into golf, there's a little course down the road that may just be of interest…

"We've had some good years here, that's for sure," says John. "And to benefit the business, I decided to invest the profits in trucks. 

"I did that because once we were established, we'd fish the Firth of Clyde during the winter and follow the prawns up to Mallaig for the summer. The trouble was, that while the fishing was good there, transport was a problem.  So we invested in a truck to bring our catch down to the fish market at Ayr.  While I was fishing, my wife Velia would oversee the sales. And that's how we went on – it was a business that worked well for us. Later on, my son Peter joined us, working at first on the boat, then on the trucks. 

"Over time, we bought a second boat and the transport side grew as well. I have to say I feared there may be a downturn in the prawn fishing industry, so was happy to be able to take on a proportion of general haulage as well to have a second string to my bow.

"We invested in refrigerated trailers so we could start running to Spain, serving the Spanish boats which were beginning to appear on the scene at that time.
We still run regularly into the Iberian peninsula today.

"The fleet is now 12 trucks strong, all Scanias, which are supplied to us by Scania in Glasgow. The reason we only use Scania trucks is that for us reliability is everything. It's as simple as that. We spend a lot of time running into Europe and need a vehicle we can depend on.  And should something happen, then we need to know that there's back-up for us all the way, which is something Scania provide for well. 

"We run quite a mix of models – everything from 420hp twin-steers to 530hp four-wheelers – which we specify depending upon the operation they are running on. My ideal spec today would be a twin-steer Topline-cabbed Scania for 44 tonne domestic work, or a 4x2 version for Continental work."