Wood Group

"One of the most successful amalgamations of local companies began in 1955 when John Wood bought out the other shareholders in the Aberdeen ship repair company of Wood & Davidson. By a process of acquisition and fresh investment the firm developed three main divisions in the 1960s and early 1970s, reespectively in fishing, engineering, and general indsutries. By 1974 the John Wood Group had become one of the largest private indsutrial companies in SCotland operating over 50 trading companies with a turnover of £18 million and 1750 employees. With 15 years' experience of rapid expansion, much of it linked to harbour-based enterprises, this cinglomerate had become one of the few Aberdeen comapnies to ahve established the necessary economic base to take full advantage of the opportuities offered to providers of locally based services by the advent of North Sea oil after 1970."

Survival and decline' by Richard Perren in Aberdeen 1800-2000, page 112