WG Davies actually began life as WJ Davies (after William John “The Boss”) when the grandfather of our current MD, Roger, started the business back in 1927. At that time it was a transport business with a focus on taking people to Swansea Docks from Landore and Cwmfellin.
In 1947, 20 years after it began, the ownership of the business was transferred to the state by The Transport Act. William retired to do charity work at the hospital and church, as well as indulging his love of gardening. However, he soon became bored and bought WG Davies (Landore) Ltd in 1949 from a lady called Queenie, who emigrated to Canada.
This time around the business was run as a haulage company, with William working alongside his sons John and Vivian Davies. They worked together with William until his death in 1972. John bought his brother out in 1982 and kept the business as it is now, WG Davies and on the site we still operate in Morriston.
After completing a four-year apprenticeship outside of the business, John’s son Roger joined in 1986. Roger started as a fitter on the Monday morning, becoming the Parts Manager on the Friday of the same week, when the Parts Manager resigned.
The business had taken on the ERF franchise a couple of months before Roger started and this evolved into the dual MAN ERF franchise in 2002 following MAN’s purchase of ERF. WG Davies also bought Lewis & Edwards, to give us a second workshop in Tenby and six years later we finally took ownership of Cardiff and Bridgend from MAN.
Roger is now our Managing Director and he told us “As we look forward to celebrating 75 years of servicing South Wales this year, we can be proud that we have always stayed true to the original family business ideals my grandfather cherished back in the 1940’s. There have been some difficult times over the years, requiring a full reorganisation of the business as recently as 2007, but we now are in a better position than ever before to continue doing what we do best – looking after our customers as if they were a part of our own family.”