Eddie Stobart is a British household name. It’s hard to take a trip anywhere in the UK without seeing at least one green liveried truck, and trying to read its name. With a cult following who refer to themselves as the ‘Stobart Saddos’, it’s a company that offers a rich and interesting story.
We all know Eddie Stobart for the fleet of trucks and trailers (2,200 and 3,200 respectively), but Eddie Stobart also have around six million square feet of warehouse, Stobart Ports and even rail freight to offer anyone involved in the logistics industry. With the founder’s youngest son William Stobart now at the helm, after a sale to investors at £280 million, the company is still going strong.
Since the giant share sale to investors led to restructuring and impairment costs totaling around the £15m mark, as well as some debt in other branches of the Stobart Group, it was the generated profit from the past year of Eddie Stobart that allowed the corporation to keep its head above water. The reported profit was £11.3m.
Yet, it’s not just shareholders and stockbrokers who have any interest in the company. The general British public have become quite enamored with the company over the past few years, especially since the first airing in 2007 of Channel 5’s ‘Eddie Stobart: Trucks and Trailers’. The 2014 series, aired 23rd May, will be seventh and final installment.
Eddie Stobart has been much loved since its beginning on 23 November 1970. There now are over 50 sites in the UK and Europe, with a vehicle delivering somewhere in the UK every 5 and a half minutes. If you were to line up every vehicle end to end it would stretch over 50 miles, and the distance travelled by the fleet each day would take you around the earth 24 times. As a British superbrand, the only way not to know about Eddie Stobart is to live in a tiny bubble. From first Eddie Stobart truck, ‘Twiggy’ named after the 1960s supermodel, to some more recent trucks, ‘Courtneyrose Anne’ and ‘Molly Mary’, every one is individual in name. So, why not see which one you next pass on the road? The ‘Stobart Saddos’ would be happy to hear your spot.