AFTER an enormously diverse 185 years John Menzies will soon become a business which operates only in the aviation industry, a pretty astonishing turn of events given the group only stepped into this line of work three decades ago.

In the 1990s Ranald Noel-Paton was managing director of John Menzies, having arrived at the Edinburgh-based group with a background in aviation. Having examined the company’s newspaper distribution model, he suggested it was not too far removed from cargo handling.

“The suggestion was that both are the same, it is time critical logistics,” says the group’s current corporate affairs director John Geddes – one of three men who form the group’s executive board, along with president Forsyth Black and finance chief Giles Wilson.

The company dipped its toe into cargo handling through a couple of small acquisitions, before the 1993 deal for Air Marketing Services led to the creation of a dedicated aviation subsidiary, which operated as an air freight operator.

This coincided with the growth of “no frills” airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet, with whom Menzies embarked on a joint venture at Luton Airport which saw it move from cargo to baggage and beyond.

“We were both new hands on the block,” says Mr Geddes. “We grew as they grew. We developed a low cost ground handling model. No one was doing a 30 minute turnaround but [low cost airlines] needed that to sweat their assets. A four man team, belt loaders, don’t carry cargo, bags on bags off, people on people off.”

The formula has transformed Menzies. Its aviation business is now number two globally, with revenue of £1.6 billion behind Swissport’s £2.8bn but ahead of Worldwide Flight Services and Donata.

“Swissport is a good credible player, I want them to do well because I’m telling airlines that it’s about trusted logistics partners doing six million turns,” says Mr Geddes. “Ground handling is an industry in its own right now. For that to be taken seriously you need to two or three credible players.”

At Glasgow Airport, Menzies works alongside Swissport, with many on-site staff having flitted between both companies through their careers as contracts with airlines come and go. Accompanying Mr Geddes on a tour of the Menzies operation reveals just how integral the company is to getting travellers, and their bags, into the air.

For example, those British Airways check in staff who hand over your boarding pass are in fact John Menzies employees. In the bowels of the airport, staff who ensure bags are lifted into the correct cargo holds stand at carousels snaking back and forth, covered in stickers from cities around the world. And on the ground, skilled drivers push airplanes back onto the runway, ready for take-off, no matter the weather or time of day.

Menzies is a global player, as active in Los Angeles as it is in London. And while Mr Geddes says he doesn’t believe having the distribution business has ever held back its advance in aviation, he said the company’s pedigree helps.

“When you go to see an airline and you can say you’re not private equity-backed, you say we’ve been here since 1883, we are listed on the stock exchange,” he says. “Airlines like that. This is our core business, we’re not owned by private equity looking to flip so we don’t make short term decisions based on an exit.”

The potted history of John Menzies paints a picture of a business constantly in flux, adapting to a changing world. It was founded in 1833 when its eponymous proprietor returned from London and opened an Edinburgh bookshop. This later began to sell The Scotsman newspaper and in 1837 published the first novel by Charles Dickins in monthly instalments.

By 1860 the company had moved into distribution, closing the store and taking advantage of the nationalisation of the rail network by selling newspapers in stations and on trains. By the end of the century, the company was in the hands of Mr Menzies’ two sons and had a Scotland-wide distribution business.

In the 20th century, the group began to grow its retail chain and distribution business and by the 1970s it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and had a huge high street presence, selling everything from books, to toys and music.

But Menzies is not a sentimental business. Just years after the retirement of the founder’s great-grandson, also John Menzies, in the late 1990s, the group – led for the first time by a non-family member, namely David McKay – announced its intention to withdraw from the high street.

In 1998 the company sold its retail arm to WH Smith for £68m.

Mr Geddes joined the group in 1997, just as the retail business was being sold, and the group had begun to move into the aviation business.

“I knew [the retail sale] was happening [when I started] and I thought I’d stick around for four or five years,” says Mr Geddes. “At the time we had Early Learning Centre, we had THE Games, which had the sole rights to distribute Nintendo in the UK. I’ve loved it, I’ve grown up with our aviation business and all the others as well.”

In 1998 the group partnered with Lufthansa’s ground handling venture to form a new subsidiary which was later renamed Menzies World Cargo.

In 2000 Menzies acquired US-based Ogden Aviation for $118m, giving it an international presence. Then in 2016, it acquired refuelling business ASIG for $202m.

That deal meant the aviation business was now larger than distribution, and after investor agitation, the group decided to split the company in two, arguably taking longer to make that decision than it should have given the sense the board now say it makes.

The decision has now been cemented by putting the distribution business up for sale – a move Mr Geddes hopes will complete in the summer, leaving it free to expand as an aviation “pure-play”, something which will be achieved through acquisition, expansion and new services, such as winning refuelling contracts currently undertaken by oil and gas majors.

Geographic expansion is also on the agenda, with North America and South East Asia top of the list – including a push into India, a market Mr Geddes says is exciting the business.

“We don’t want to be all things to all people, we can pick and choose,” he adds. “Certain airlines have said ‘we love your service can you come into this airport’, and we’ll say no because the operating environment isn’t right; staff turnover is high and there are only four flights a day. We have to be careful. It’s about having the right market dynamics.”

The operation also has to change to meet differing customer demands, with Mr Geddes highlighting how airlines like Emirates want “first class everything” while some low-cost US carriers only want three people on a flight, because they are driven by cost.

“You look at the airport infrastructure, the airlines, the frequency, the local labour market and then you build a business case,” he says.

Mr Geddes joined the executive team in November 2016 and says he is “very lucky” to have ended up there. A chartered company secretary, he arrived at Menzies from Guinness and was soon led into investor relations by then chief executive Martin Smith.

“I had a bit of knowledge in stocks and shares, and Martin asked what I knew about investor relations. He took me around the City to help convince people Menzies wasn’t a chain of shops, it was a distribution business. That gave me another string to my bow,” he says.

“It was my ambition to be a PLC company secretary but through the Menzies journey I’ve been able to do that and much more,” he adds.

While Menzies now has a presence in more than 230 airports around the world, Mr Geddes laughs when asked if the company is keeping an eye on the development of commercial space flights.

“I can honestly say we’ve never had a discussion on it,” he says.

Given Menzies proclivity for metamorphosis, there is a chance that this conversation will happen at some point in the not too distant future.