From boxed lettering to bold metallic gold, the Frew's North Canterbury livery tells its own story of change
We follow on from last month: John Frew continued to grow the business and sons Evan, Mervyn and Owen all joined the then-business in the 1960s. Various acquisitions and sales divisions within the then group of companies occurred in the preceding years and decades.
The turn of the century was a big turning point for the Frew’s entity, when the Frew’s group of companies were divided between the three brothers – Frew’s Contracting (Evan), Frew’s Transport Darfield (Merv) and Frew’s North Canterbury (Owen).
In 2001, Owen sold the Oxford branch to Merv (Frew’s Darfield), which remains Frew’s Transport Darfield and Oxford and we will feature them in next month’s instalment, followed by Frew’s Contracting.
The Frew’s North Canterbury fleet continued to be varied throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Japanese trucks remained a stalwart along with the Volvo brand. Several Seddon Atkinsons joined the fray in the late 90s, but perhaps the standout at the time was a new T401 Kenworth put on the road in 1999 to service the Nelson overnight freight run. Mercedes-Benz and Iveco had a presence, and many preloved trucks also entered the fleet in various applications, a notable one being a T480 Kenworth with Frew’s Forestry signwriting.
Speaking of signwriting, there were several tweaks with the livery over the years. The plain red stripe on the side of the cabs became a trendy jagged stripe, the Frew’s name was boxed in a black and white frame. The Frew’s signage then morphed into bright yellow complete with a swirl with the chocolate brown base colour remaining. Then came a complete revamp with an all-encompassing bright bold metallic gold with red bumpers which were soon after were also changed to gold or remained alloy.
Another somewhat bigger change occurred in 2007, when Frew’s North Canterbury sold the transport fleet at Rangiora to Murray Pascoe, who changed the name to Transport Rangiora and remains a North Canterbury transport company stalwart to this day.
Images by Dean Middleton
