In this instalment of Toyota Professionals, we chat to Davey Smith, who uses his two Proace City electric vans to deliver fish and chips around Grimsby from his fish and chip shop, Ernie Beckett’s.
Ahead of me, crumbling red-brick factory buildings, and derelict edifices, hint at a once glorious past. I turn off the main road and head into the docks to search for a location for today’s photoshoot.
Haphazardly radiating out across the dock area, shambolic rows of small two and three-story terraced buildings try to hold each other up. Where boat-loads of fish were once gutted and sold, bushes and weeds are now anchored to gutters and window sills. Windows are boarded or bricked-up and faded paintwork frames permanently closed roller-shutter doors. This area was once known as the ‘Kasbah’ – from the Arabic for ‘a marketplace’, with narrow darkened streets.
Among the ramshackle remains, I spot a shiny red forklift truck parked outside a fish smoker – one of the few small businesses still trading. I drive on and reach a large modern blue-clad warehouse with ‘Grimsby Fish’ emblazoned on its side. This is claimed to still be the UK’s largest fish market, processing fish mainly from Iceland and Norway.
I find a grey gravel car park overlooking the market and the harbour where a few little trawlers are moored against the quay wall. I knock on the door of a small office building and am met by a smiling middle-aged man who gives me permission to use the area for the photo shoot.
He tells me his company works with off-shore wind turbines and goes on to explain how the world’s largest wind farm is being built off the coast of Grimsby. He is just one of a number of green energy businesses, based in Grimsby, involved with the manufacture, installation and maintenance of wind turbines.
It seems apt when Davey Smith, who runs a nearby fish and chip shop, Ernie Beckett’s, arrives with his two brand-new electric Toyota Proace City vans – an elegant synergy between Grimsby’s oldest and newest commodities.
As Davey and one of his drivers shuffle the vans into position he explains: “We started offering deliveries during…
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