Galbraiths Brand Guidelines: An 1845 London Broker, Now Half of IFCHOR GALBRAITHS

A master mariner’s London broking house.

Galbraiths traces its start to London in 1845. The history page of its successor, IFCHOR GALBRAITHS, says that William Schaw Lindsay, a master mariner, set up a shipbroking business in the city that year. English Wikipedia gives the background: Lindsay had worked in Hartlepool as an agent for the Castle Eden Coal Company, moved to London in 1845 to represent it, and combined that coal-fitting trade with shipbroking and an agency for a Glasgow iron merchant. He established the firm of W. S. Lindsay & Co., which English Wikipedia says soon became one of the largest shipowning concerns in the world.

The Galbraith name arrived later. The company says that in 1869 James Galbraith joined the business, and that it went on to own ships and to manage lines including the Albion Line and the British & Burmese Steam Navigation Company. Its history also lists the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, the Burmese river fleet, which English Wikipedia describes as managed by P Henderson & Company of Glasgow. The company says it sold its last vessel in 1952, which left the firm as a broker rather than an owner.

In 1968 the business, then called Galbraiths Pembroke & Co, became part of the Matthews Wrightson Group, the company says. Two years later, in 1970, it started the Galbraiths’ Shipping Course, a training course for people working in the trade, which the company describes as a mainstay of shipping education with a global alumni network. In 2014 a management buy-out created the newly named Galbraiths, which refocused on chartering and on sale and purchase. By its own account it then grew into a tanker brokerage with a sale and purchase business, offices on three continents and more than 100 employees.

A Swiss partner and a joint name.

On 3 November 2022 Galbraiths and the Swiss dry bulk broker IFCHOR said they had agreed to merge through a share-for-share deal, in a joint statement published by The Maritime Executive. The statement said the new group would be headquartered in Switzerland, with 20 offices and more than 300 employees. It described IFCHOR as known for dry bulk and for its presence in continental Europe, and Galbraiths for its long history in tankers and sale and purchase; Galbraiths’ chief executive, Bjorn Andersen, spoke of building on the firm’s 177-year heritage and of a privately held firm.

The deal went through. In May 2023 a statement from the combined firm, again published by The Maritime Executive, described IFCHOR GALBRAITHS, or IG, as the result of the 2022 merger, with offices in 23 locations and more than 300 employees, active in dry bulk, tankers, sale and purchase, renewables and carbon advisory work. The same statement announced that IG had acquired the Norwegian offshore broker UNO Offshore, founded in 2010 with a team in Bergen and Haugesund, which was to be renamed IG Offshore, and it named Andersen as co-chief executive. It also mentioned a half share in GRS Offshore Renewables.

IFCHOR itself dates from 1977, when Riccardo Ravano founded it in Lausanne, building on his family’s Genoese shipowning business of the late 1940s, the company says. The merged firm’s overview page describes it as born of the 2022 merger of “London tanker broker Galbraiths and Swiss dry broker IFCHOR.” Since then Galbraiths has lived on as half of the group’s name rather than as a separate company, and the old galbraiths.co.uk address now forwards to the IFCHOR GALBRAITHS website.

How shipbroking houses present themselves.

Shipbrokers arrange charters and ship sales rather than make products, and their websites lean on age, reach and research. Many London houses put a long founding date close to the name: Clarksons traces its business to 1852, and Braemar counts more than fifty years since its 1971 start. This guide reads the category through a sober register of navy, deep red and stone with plain wordmarks, an unofficial interpretation rather than any firm’s own colours.

The websites tend to be organised by market. Clarksons and Braemar both split their chartering pages into desks for tankers, dry cargo, gas and containers, with sale and purchase alongside, and both run derivatives teams that trade freight futures. At Clarksons, offshore and renewables appear as further desks, so a visitor can go straight to the market they trade.

Research is the second pillar. Clarksons runs Clarksons Research as its own business line, with data platforms sold by subscription, while Braemar keeps a research team next to its broking desks and a news and insights section. Market reports, forecasts and conference talks give these firms a public voice between deals, and trade publications such as gCaptain and The Maritime Executive have reported their outlooks and results.

Office maps and careers pages complete the picture. Clarksons says it has more than 70 offices in 26 countries, and Braemar lists tanker desks from London and Madrid to Houston, Geneva and Singapore. Both publish trainee broker programmes for graduates and newcomers, and Clarksons adds summer internships in London and Oslo. The guides that follow look at how each house presents its history, its markets and its people.

Half of a merged name.

Today the group describes itself as a global shipbroking network with about 300 professionals and more than 25 offices, and its website lists addresses in Lausanne and London. Its broking pages are arranged by market — tankers, dry bulk, gas, offshore and renewables, and sale and purchase — and each is split into smaller desks, such as Capesize chartering on the dry side or chemicals and biofuels on the tanker side. The offshore and renewables desk promises work “from concept to contract,” and the sale and purchase desk offers what the site calls discreet and independent advice.

Research is a large part of how the firm presents itself. Its Research & Advisory team, which the company says has 12 people, with analysts in Geneva, Genoa, Lausanne, London and Singapore, covers tankers, gas, dry bulk, offshore and sale and purchase, and also writes about carbon pricing and rules such as the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime. Its Commodities 360 series covers iron ore, agricultural products, coal and, from September 2026, bauxite, the company says. The firm also runs the IG Shipping Course and an IG Talent Programme, which it presents as its way of promoting industry knowledge, and its news pages report that the firm received the Cargo Day 2025 Dry Bulk Award, announced at a gala in Geneva on 30 September 2026.

For a design guide, Galbraiths shows how a long London name can live on inside a merged brand: the 1845 date, the 1869 arrival of the Galbraith name and the 1970 shipping course still frame the story, while the firm trades as IFCHOR GALBRAITHS. Compare Clarksons and Braemar, two more London shipbroking houses. For this guide we use a deep navy, a muted brass and a chart cream with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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