A COAL merchant in Fife will close after being in business for more than 100 years.
The Kirkcaldy business Andrew Matthews, which started in 1921 when coal was delivered by horse and cart, will close later this month.
The coal business has been run by three generations of the Matthew family, with son Andy and grandson Derek following in Andrew’s footsteps.
After running the family firm for 45 years Derek, 63, will be lifting his last sack of coal next week, the Courier has reported.
He recalled the earlier days of the business as he told the paper: “Initially it was started by my grandfather and his brothers in the north end of Kirkcaldy and called Matthew Brothers.
“The legend goes that they’d been fish merchants who went into the coal business.
“Of course, at that time, there were mines everywhere.
“At some point the brothers went their separate ways and the business was renamed.
“By the end of the 1920s it was a 12-horse operation. The business got its first lorries in the 1930s.”
He added that in recent years the business has swapped to importing low sulphur coal from Colombia, which are mostly commonly used in wood-burning stoves.
Derek said that business has declined as burning coal is no longer the primary source of heating for people and that demand is now seasonal instead of year-round.
He said: “There’s been a lot of decline and I’ve worked on my own since 1996. But I’m still sitting with just over 320 customers.
“Back in the day, it was the main source of heating. Now it’s an added extra and the business is very seasonal.
“In the old days, the housewife used to buy her coal every week, right through the whole year. So when it got cold in the wintertime, they’d had a stock.
“There’s been a big sort of increase in wood-burning stoves getting fitted. People are using the smokeless fuel with the wood to spin the wood out, because wood burns quite quickly.”
