J.R. Rix & Sons Ltd

J.R. Rix & Sons Ltd is a family-owned British business that is headquartered in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. The roots of the company date back to 1873 when founder Robert Rix, the son of a Norfolk farmer, established a ship building business in Teesside, which he subsequently moved to Hull in 1883.

Today J.R. Rix & Sons Ltd is involved in a large range of activities ranging from commercial, residential and marine fuel distribution, fuel cards, ship owning, stevedoring, warehousing and off shore wind farm support to holiday home manufacturing, car retail and property, through a number of subsidiaries of which the largest is Rix Petroleum Ltd.

Others include Rix Heating Services; Rix Shipping; Rix Sea Shuttle; Maritime Bunkering; Rix Shipping (Scotland) Ltd; Jordans Cars; Rix Truck Services; Fuelmate, and; Victory Leisure Homes.

In 2014 the company was ranked 30th in the Sunday Times’ Top Track 250. The current managing director of J.R. Rix & Sons Ltd is Tim Rix the great-great-grandson of founder Robert.

Robert Rix was born in March 1841 into a farming family in Burnham Overy, Norfolk, and at age 10 was sent to work on the land. However, he did not take to the work and within two years had run away to sea. He joined a small sailing coaster on the Tees and his early career was spent trading with northern Scottish ports down to South Wales and later the near Continent.

He settled in in the North East of England and in 1862 married Margaret Dobson. It was while living here that he first established a shipbuilding company on the south bank of the Tees while at the same time continuing to work as a captain. The couple produced seven children and moved to Hull in 1883 where Robert continued his business.

Robert was joined in the business by his three sons, John Robert (Bob), Ernest Bertie (Bert) and Herbert Dobson (Herbie), and continued to expand his fleet with the addition of several steamers. In 1908 he came ashore to manage the business from the office.

Due to an increased demand for freight tonnage during the Great War, Robert Rix & Sons increased revenue and profit throughout the period and invested in a ship building programme to modernise its fleet. The company also offloaded a number of older steamers which were fetching higher prices than in peacetime. In 1916 and 1917 Robert Rix & Sons took delivery of two pairs of steamships from Cochrane & Sons Ltd in Selby, which for the first time bore the family name. These were the Magrix, the Robrix, and Jarrix and the Ebbrix and they set the precedent by which all Rix ships would be named from then on.

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Wikipedia