REA Bott

[Richard]

I recently went to a R.E.A.Bott reunion in London I was wondering if there would be any intrest in one organised in Scotland or maybe nationally any one intrested contact me and ask anyone you know who worked for R E A Bott

[WebRam]

Great Idea Richard, stick me down on the list

[WebRam]

Info for those not from the UK.

REA.Bott was a UK national service and installation company who went through hard times, was bought over and is not defunct.

You will find Bott engineers all over the UK who talked highly of the company....... and some who don't

[chubbs]

worked for botts ,best firm going still miss it now,would be a good idea

I recently went to a R.E.A.Bott reunion in London I was wondering if there would be any intrest in one organised in Scotland or maybe nationally any one intrested contact me and ask anyone you know who worked for R E A Bott

[fowlie]

my old man worked for botts when they first set up in east kilbride i know hed be intrested

[Chiswick]

Started Working for Botts in 1978 out of Wigmore street did the west end with Pat Denning and Bill scotsman lovely breakfast at the Savoy!
Good old days!

[curious08]

Hi,

Hope you dont mind me joining. My granpa used to work for REA Bott Edinburgh. Been thinking a lot about him recently and wondered if anyone remembers him. His name was Michael (mick) Morgan?

Thanks,
K

[coolhibby1875]

rea bott might have been great to work for however they made the worst packs i have had the misfortune of working on!

[spezi]

Hi all

that brings back memorys and mind bogeling facts.
I started work as an apprentice for central distributors which then quickly cahnged to wincanton engineering after this it was called winair which then was later a part of wathes. I left and went to O Gormann / Prestcolds just as they were being thrown together and put together with Hussmanns which caused me to leave again very quickly. Tried my luck at Trembaths but soon changed to R.E.A. Botts where everything seemed to be perfect. As far as I know Botts sold out to General Refrigeration which again got taken over by Wathes and so we are back to the start.

Luckily I had left Botts in the late 80s to go abroud working for Linde and then for York In Germany. Its strange when you think about all these big companies that just dispeared or got taken over. Whose interested can look at the register by companies house !

[tony--1]

I stll have botts packs that i look after sum 20 + yrs old

[coolhibby1875]

i still look after some of there packs now that are 20 year old plus and they are a big bag of junk.

[WebRam]

Hi,

Hope you dont mind me joining. My granpa used to work for REA Bott Edinburgh. Been thinking a lot about him recently and wondered if anyone remembers him. His name was Michael (mick) Morgan?

Thanks,
K

I remember Mick, worked on the service side and played the trumpet I believe

[fowlie]

hi curious08
spoke to my old man today as he worked for botts in edinburgh he used to work as an apprentice under your grandad when he worked for lothian refrige,he knew your grandad for about twenty odd years as your grandad was the first to join botts in scotland but kept going back to the mines my dad said as he loved working their

[Silhouette]

I believe Botts were bought out by NRC who then went bust, leaving a lot of disgruntled people! The owner of NRC did not realise the depth of debt he was taking on!!

[coolhibby1875]

i thought nrc were bought by wr or wathes at the time?

[fowlie]

no wr bought the service side as they split the company in two service/install,then as i heard it some big customers pulled the plug on orders and that was it for nrc.the factories shut up and i heard it nearly took down gaurdian controls as well

[Silhouette]

Yep! Gaurdian controls had a big tie up with NRC, we did most of their R&D with them and Tesco. Another good company falls at the behest of the supermarkets!

[coolhibby1875]

again i have to disagree gaurdian controls belong with nrc packs and that is in the past over complicated junk!!!

[Silhouette]

It's only overcomplicated if you don't understand it!!

[coolhibby1875]

very true perhaps i should have used the words not very user friendly.

[supermarketguy]

Hi all,

Bott's were a decent company and looked after their guys.

I worked for their East Kilbride branch fos a couple of years, just after they were taken over by Nrc.

[curious08]

I remember Mick, worked on the service side and played the trumpet I believe

Thats him!x

[curious08]

hi curious08
spoke to my old man today as he worked for botts in edinburgh he used to work as an apprentice under your grandad when he worked for lothian refrige,he knew your grandad for about twenty odd years as your grandad was the first to join botts in scotland but kept going back to the mines my dad said as he loved working their

Mines?? I thought that was another tall story from my granda, he once told me he won the war from the trenches with a banana skin (threw it over the side, hitler slipped and they all went down like dominos!)!

He said he chopped his nose off with an axe in the mines, stuck it back on with spit!

Haha, nice to see folks remember him!

[eurocooling]

I believe Botts were bought out by NRC who then went bust, leaving a lot of disgruntled people! The owner of NRC did not realise the depth of debt he was taking on!!

hi the owner of Nrc did no what he was taking on he saved a lot of jobs it was the big supermarkets who let him down I was there

[jwhytock]

Hi,

Hope you dont mind me joining. My granpa used to work for REA Bott Edinburgh. Been thinking a lot about him recently and wondered if anyone remembers him. His name was Michael (mick) Morgan?

Thanks,
K

Michael was the nicest man ive ever worked with i served my apprenticeship under Mick and i tell you what pal i still miss that old denim cap he wore in coldrooms . yes that includes you Dez lol.

[Greengrocer]

I finished my apprenticeship with Frigidaire (Stag Lane London) in 1975. There were no jobs available so they got me an interview at Botts at Wigmore St London. I was interviewed by David Bott. I turned the job down because Botts offered me less money than I was getting at Frigidaire. Via my old lecturer at Willesden Tech I ended up going to a Carlyle / Carrier distributor instead (Weathermaker Equipment Ltd). I’ve been in the A/C business ever since.

[Markituk]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to trace an old friend calle Tony Williams.

He worked for Bott's out of Wigmore St from around 1972 as did his dad Fred. Tony lived in south Harrow at the time. I know he eventually setup his company and worked out of Alperton for a while and lived in the Chorleywood area.

Does anyone know of his whereabouts or any information?

Many thanks

Mark

[jwhytock]

One thing about rea bott was at one point they practically covered every major retailer from capital foods thru wm low tesco presto asda safeway asda to gateway difference between them and another company i could think of was.........
Although they cut everybodys throats by undercutting them all they actually carried out the obligations of the customer by turning up within the agreed response time and effecting repairs...... What ultimately cut their own throats was the lavish spending at the top of the tree not undercutting so severly they couldnt afford to employ enough men to carry out the work..............
Some more than average guys came from rea bott look at how many guys from rea bott at the top end of your companies i bet youll see botts guys i can think of one deputy managing director who worked there

[Colin G]

i think this trade is and has been pure carnage, if some one wrote a book about the history of refrigeration company's it would be a very interesting and controversial read

[tech1]

What packs do you like ????

[coolhibby1875]

One thing about rea bott was at one point they practically covered every major retailer from capital foods thru wm low tesco presto asda safeway asda to gateway difference between them and another company i could think of was.........
Although they cut everybodys throats by undercutting them all they actually carried out the obligations of the customer by turning up within the agreed response time and effecting repairs...... What ultimately cut their own throats was the lavish spending at the top of the tree not undercutting so severly they couldnt afford to employ enough men to carry out the work..............
Some more than average guys came from rea bott look at how many guys from rea bott at the top end of your companies i bet youll see botts guys i can think of one deputy managing director who worked there

in scotland i think you will find that all the best engineers out there now where either from rea bott or hussmann, and the reason for that is when supermarkets burst onto the high street they were the only 2 out there!

[eurocooling]

Nrc did no what they were doing taking over botts as we paid there 15m debt of for them in 1996 I was there

[del boy]

I recently went to a R.E.A.Bott reunion in London I was wondering if there would be any intrest in one organised in Scotland or maybe nationally any one intrested contact me and ask anyone you know who worked for R E A Bott

sounds good i worked for botts from 1972 till the end

[aj]

i took your granda home when he retired. nice old fella.