Lorry firm founder Eddie Stobart dies aged 95
The former boss of the Cumbria-based firm, recognisable for its green and red fleet of lorries adorned with his name, died on November 25.
Eddie Stobart, the founder of the renowned haulage empire, has died at the age of 95.
The former boss of the Cumbria-based firm, recognisable for its green and red fleet of lorries adorned with his name, died on November 25.
Edward Pears Stobart was born in Cumbria in 1929 into a family of farmers.
He first started the operation as a small agricultural business in 1946, specialising in distributing fertiliser and completing contract work for local farms.
In 1957, he secured the first Eddie Stobart lorry, a second-hand Guy Invincible four-wheeler, which featured the now-recognisable green and red colouring.
The business continued to deliver fertiliser but expanded after being offered a contract by Imperial Chemical Industries.
The firm’s growth accelerated sharply in the 1970s and 80s after his second youngest child Edward took leadership of the group’s logistics operation.
Edward grew the business from eight lorries to a group running more than 2,700 vehicles.
However he died in 2011, aged 56, of a suspected heart attack, having ran the business for more than 30 years.
Eddie Stobart had stepped back significantly from the firm after selling most of his trading interests in 1980 to invest in an industrial warehouse near Carlisle, where he ended up retiring with his wife Nora Boyd.
The company is now branded as Stobart Group and was taken over by the Culina Group in 2021.
William Stobart, the fourth child of Eddie, is currently the deputy chief executive of Culina.
