The Lighthouse – A pioneering Spirit
The Inchcape lighthouse lies 11 miles out to sea off the East coast of Arbroath, Scotland. It stands on one of the most treacherous submerged reefs in the northern hemisphere and is one of the seven wonders of the Industrial Age.
Thanks to the pioneering spirit of a young engineer, Robert Stevenson, who dreamed of building the impossible, a lighthouse was planned on the ‘Rock’ that had claimed over 100 lives.
Despite many obstacles, Stevenson never lost faith in his plan, and by February 1811, the lighthouse on Inchcape Rock was finished. It is the oldest, sea-standing lighthouse in the world and today, still saves lives.
100 years later, inspired by this pioneering spirit, Inchcape’s founder James Lyle MacKay, when awarded a title for his services to industry became the first ‘Baron Inchcape of Strathnaver’ and so named the company that he led.
Inchcape - Diverse & Worldwide
Many of the companies that now make up part of the Inchcape group can trace their roots back to merchant partnerships founded in the 18th and 19th centuries in the Persian Gulf, East Africa, India, China, Hong Kong and Japan.
The Inchcape group was largely built by James Lyle Mackay, who at the age of 12 inherited a prosperous shipping and overseas trade company in Scotland. In 1874 Mackay went to work as a clerk for a firm of Scottish traders and shipping agents. The company was engaged in a diverse range of industries - trading tea, sugar and textiles, insurance and banking and eventually Mackay found himself at the helm.
Inchcape - Shaping the Future
It was Mackay's gradnson the 3rd Lord Inchcape who brought the widespread family businesses under one holding company - Inchcape & Co Limited, which was the forerunner of the present Inchcape group that was flotated on the stock exchange in 1958 and became a PLC in 1978.
At the end of the 1990s the group became focused purely on the automotive industry which paved the way to Inchcape being one of the leading vehicle distribution and retailing companies in the world today.
