Acting as the gateway to the Mediterranean, Gibraltar is situated in one of the busiest shopping lanes of the world and has given a safe anchorage to shipping since Phoenician times. Being in such a strategic position, Gibraltar has always served as a husbandry port for all shipping, both naval and mercantile.

Into this environment in 1837 came William James Smith, the son of a Dublin Barrister, to act as Agents for the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, the precursor to P&O. A few months later he started his own business.

Since its inception in 1837, the company's principal business has been that of Shipping Agents and, in the days of steam, coal merchants. Smith Imossi has been Lloyd's Agents since 1884.

In 1859 the founders son, William Henry Smith, took Francis Imossi into partnership and the company was renamed Smith Imossi & Co., until in 1948 the firm was made into a limited liability company. However since 1859 to the present, the two familes have conducted the firm's business.

The current Directors are Paul Lawrence and his brother Arthur Francis Imossi and William Harry Smith and Susi Greig.