In 1938 during the hardship of the Second World War years George started recycling and repairing vehicles. When the war finally ended, he expanded his small business by buying surplus ex-military vehicles. These he then broke down and used the axles and wheels to build some of the first all steel farm trailers to be pulled by tractors (ie Grey Fergies). These trailers were called Farm Master Trailers.
In 1950 George was joined in business by his son Ralph and they carried on with the business format until the early 1960s. The business diversified and altered direction a little by moving away from only agricultural to also the building and refurbishment of HGV road trucks and trailers including some heavy haulage and specialist engineering projects.
A family business
The third generation to join the family business was Mark who joined in 1977. With a different view to engineering, moving the family company towards the specialist sector designing and manufacturing a large amount of the country's bespoke one-off builds. The fourth generation of Gissings in the business consists of Wayne who joined in 2006 and Jason who joined in 2007. The family ethos of providing a solid, individual, quality tailor-made product remains as strong and as important today as it did in 1938. Many repeat customers are second, third and fourth generations themselves who’s forefathers dealt with George and Ralph, just as they are now doing with Mark, Wayne and Jason. Jason and Wayne formed Gissing to meet the growing expansion into the Slurry and Waste sector. With work fully booked in front of them, the company continues to grow strong.
No matter the project
Each individual customer is important and the majority of our customers are long term. The customer base spans from Scotland to Cornwall in the UK and reaches far beyond to the rest of the world. The largest project was a specialist engineering outfit built for the then CAP Coppermine’s in Chile South America.
The work and customers have always been diverse, from an agricultural trailer for a small farm all the way to truck trailer work for a prominent F1 racing team. From bale collectors to heavy haulage for a pipeline company inbetween.
The future's bright
For many years we have been manufacturing some of the greatest engineering projects for the agricultural waste industry. Clearly becoming established as the trendsetter within the industry, this is backed up by our benchmark 5-year warranty on machinery manufactured by us*. We have always thrived on setting the standard for others to follow, whether this is manufacturing components or assisting our suppliers in the design stage to supply us with a unique rebound product. The standard procedure which follows the Gissing name is reliability and quality.
We only source our components, where they are not manufactured by us, from well-established quality manufacturers and suppliers. Only after we have inspected each part is it deemed fit for use on a Gissing machine.