RG LAWRIE, a name which has been around Glasgow retailing for 116 years will not be so prominent in future as the parent company, Hector Russell Kiltmaker, develops a new corporate image.
Glasgow shoppers have become accustomed to the RG Lawrie shopfront at 110 Buchanan Street where it has been situated since the sixties, but the name has disappeared, to be replaced by the Hector Russell title.
Hector Russell took over the RG Lawrie business in 1985 but had retained the name on its shopfront.
However, the company recently introduced a new corporate image which has led to the change.
The RG Lawrie name will not disappear completely, though, and will still appear below the windows of the shop, to maintain the link with the past, and also because many overseas customers look for it.
Arthur Lawrie, whose grandfather founded the business, and who took over its running from his father in 1961, has kept in touch with Michael Cantlay, the chairman of Hector Russell, since the takeover in 1985.
Mr Lawrie visited the refurbished shop in Buchanan Street, and to stress continued links with the past, Michael Cantlay showed him the set of bagpipes RG Lawrie had made for Queen Victoria's son, the Prince of Wales, in the 1890s.
The bagpipes were purchased at an auction several years ago.
Arthur Lawrie's grandfather, Robert, began as a turner of ivory billiard balls and moved on to turning bowls before diversifying into bagpipes, because, said Arthur, he could ''turn anything''.
In 1881 when the army introduced pipe bands, the company began to make kilts, sporrans, feather bonnets and dirks.
Arthur Lawrie recalled that during the First World War, RG Lawrie produced 150 kilts, 25 side drums and 150 bugles a week.
This relationship continues with Hector Russell Kiltmaker's factory in Inverness supplying kilts for the MoD.
''Our job in Buchanan Street,'' explained Michael Cantlay, ''is to meet the challenge of combining the old traditions of RG Lawrie with modern retailing.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article