About Us
John Shirley
Managing Director
Having lived in Bosnia and Canada, John became a finished products commodity trader in a Yugoslav trading company based in London (turnover £200m). He tumbled into the international freight business when the company that he worked for turned out to be mainly Serbian, and was closed under UN sanctions that were current at the time.
Offered work in Dover by a clearance agent whom he had used previously for imports, John quickly established, by talking to drivers from former Yugoslavia, that the majority were going out from the UK empty after having made their deliveries in the UK. This could be from as far up as Glasgow.
In the early to mid-nineties, the wars in Croatia and Bosnia were in full swing with the consequent need to feed, clothe and house refugees then, eventually, to re-build the infrastructure in the war torn areas. It was expensive for charities and NGOs to hire and insure trucks to get their aid there. As soon as they learnt about the empty trucks from former Yugoslavia and the low cost involved they snapped at the chance to use them. Through this agency and subsequently through John Shirley Ltd, then based in Willesborough, aid went in vast quantities from Dublin, Glasgow, Turrif, Bristol, Wrexham, London, Rotterdam, Aarhus, Nuremberg, Rennes, Paris, Naples, Gibraltar, Istanbul, Ziar nad Hronom, Balassagyarmat, Belgrade etc. Much of this aid was paid for by the government of Japan in their first major donation programme.
Goods shipped included tens of thousands of tonnes of NAAFI biscuits, Bailey bridges, baby boxes, pasta, flour, rice, cooking oil, sugar, seed potatoes, tomato paste, beds, tents, body bags, generators, tractors, bowsers, stone crushers, paper, thermal power plant parts, garbage trucks, tippers, fire engines, armoured Landrovers, Landcruisers and so on. Later, in 1999 to 2001, the exercise was repeated with Kosovo resulting in a doubling of turnover in 2000. At all times phone calls in Serbo-Croat to get trucks though borders and vetinary checks was imperative. Use of French, German and Spanish at the loading places was often a tremendous help.
Since those hectic years the nature of traffic has become more commercial however, the necessity remains to get trucks and containers to their loading places on time when there are a dozen or more volunteers waiting, as aid is still being shipped although in much smaller quantities.
John is fluent in Serbo-Croat and French. He also speaks some Spanish and German.
Robin Ross
Operations Manager
Robin first entered the world of freight forwarding in 1973 with Thomas Meadows Ltd and has worked in a number of freight environments including import and export customs documentation, full load and groupage deep-sea container operations, rail freight and driver accompanied trailers throughout Europe. He has been with the company since 1996. Robin's interests include include walking, wood turning and motorcycling.
Sam Shirley
Accounts Manager
Taking over from Kemal Pervanic who left to complete his Masters Degree, Sam Shirley is a recent PPE graduate from the University of Warwick. He is taking on the position for a year until he plans to study his Masters Degree. Sam speaks some French