The Next Generation Steps In

In the mid-1950s, siblings Graeme and Lesley Mearns joined the company. Graeme had grown up watching his parents build the business from nothing. Lesley became business administrator, the backbone of operations. Together, they brought fresh ideas and hunger to grow.

At that time, an opportunity emerged to produce guidebooks for county and town councils. Mearns Publications was formed and proved hugely successful. A large client list stretched from Sutherland and Ross and Cromarty in the north to Argyll in the west and Fife in the east. These were the early days of Scottish tourism, with local government beginning to recognise its value. British families took their annual "trades fortnight" holidays in places like Nairn and St Andrews, long before package holidays to Spain became the norm.

By 1959, the business had outgrown Union Row. For £3,000, they bought 7 Carden Place, originally a church manse, which the company still occupies to this day.