in lorries or machinery, or in business generally. He simply wanted to be a farmer, so he took his inheritance in cash and bought some sheep in order to get started.
Edward on reaching eighteen, in 1972, naturally took his shares. Working in his father’s firm, looking after the lorries and machinery, was exactly what he wanted to do. Anne, by now, was approaching her twenty-first birthday and was shortly getting married, becoming Mrs Anne Fearon. She was made a director of the firm that year, along with her father.
The accounts for 1972 show a huge increase in the firm’s turnover since becoming a limited company; it had reached almost a quarter of a million pounds, with profits of £17,153. It is noticeable that, on the official accounts, the business of Eddie Stobart Ltd is stated as being: ‘agricultural merchants and dealers in agricultural machinery, plant etc.’ The farm shop, where Anne and her husband, Ken, were working – and also Eddie for a lot of the time – was doing well, and so were their other agricultural activities. But the haulage part of the company was also proving a success, thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of Edward for all things lorry-like. This is where the future lay, so Edward thought, this was where a lot more business was to be had.
Although Eddie himself much preferred the fertilizing and farming side of the business, he allowed Edward to build up the haulage side and was prepared to listen to ideas, opportunities or suggestions for further developments. In May 1973, Richard Woodcock, owner of the garage in Hesket, offered Eddie the chance to visit a proper haulage firm, to see how the big boys did it.
Richard Woodcock’s father, also called Richard, was the owner of the village shop in Hesket. He had sent young Richard to a public school, Ampleforth, but Richard had left with only one real ambition: to work with motor cars. After leaving school, Richard had become an apprentice fitter at the firm of Sutton and Sons of St Helen’s, a family firm in Lancashire. They were a very well known, national firm whose rise to eminence in the haulage business had been partly based on their connections and nearness to Pilkington’s of St Helens, the glass giants. As they had grown and expanded, so had Sutton and Sons and their lorries. In 1973, they had about two hundred lorries.
Richard hadn’t expected that Edward, aged nineteen at the time, was coming with his dad on the day’s outing. ‘As we drove off, I was a bit surprised when Edward jumped in the car as well. On the way down, I told Eddie that if we met Alf Sutton himself, which was unlikely, I should warn him that Alf was a bit, well, the rough-and-ready type, who used strong industrial language. I knew that Eddie was a devout Methodist and might get upset. He said don’t worry, he’d met all sorts in the agricultural world.
‘We had a brilliant day out, toured all the premises, met some of my old friends. Eddie and Edward were both amazed by Sutton’s operation. They had their own garages and repair shops which were huge, with state-of-the-art equipment. In those days, haulage firms kept their lorries for many years, looking after them themselves.
‘We had lunch in their canteen and then, eventually, we did get to see Alf himself. It was a short chat, in his office. He was very helpful, giving the Stobarts some of his time and a bit of advice.’
Edward, today, can remember the advice very clearly. ‘He asked us how many lorries we had at our place. We told him we had six – that was all we had at that particular time. His advice was that we should give them all up. Haulage was too tough a business. Get rid of the lorries and the drivers, he said. We’d be better off using owner-drivers for our business. So that was pretty depressing …’
But they did have a most interesting day out, enjoyed by all. Richard had been aware that Mr Sutton had not been particularly encouraging, haulage-wise but, looking back, he thinks Alf’s words might have had a positive effect on young Edward. ‘In a way, it spurred him on to prove people wrong. I think he saw what a fantastic setup Alf Sutton had and thought he could do just as well, if not better.’
In 1975, on reaching the age of twenty-one, Edward became a director of Eddie Stobart Ltd, joining his father Eddie and sister Anne. It was another good year for the firm, judging by the annual accounts. The turnover, from sales of goods and work done, was £407,138, but costs had been high and their net profit was just £19,647.
By 1975, Edward was looking after the haulage side of the business almost completely on his own. The accounts for the end of the year show a number of vehicles being bought and sold during that year but, on average, they were running eight lorries, plus the same number of trailers and units.
Edward was determined to improve this side of the business, but was finding many problems. He lost one good driver who didn’t want to do any long-distance work and drive further than the county boundaries. Rural-based, local country drivers from Hesket and Caldbeck, the sort they had always employed, many of whom Edward had grown up with, did not like doing night work or long-distance work. They were not keen, either, on anything that might be deemed urgent, drop everything, do-it-now work.
Almost all the haulage work the firm undertook was sub-contracted. A bigger haulage firm, elsewhere in Cumbria, would have the main contract, but would pass on bits to smaller firms like Eddie Stobart Ltd if they couldn’t manage it all. By definition, these were very often last-minute jobs, emergencies or night work, which Edward was keen to accept, however inconvenient. It often meant he did these rotten jobs himself, for in 1975, aged twenty-one, he had passed his Heavy Goods Vehicle licence. He could now legally drive any of the bigger trucks. But he knew he was missing a lot of work by not having suitable, willing men always available. It was also a handicap being stuck in Hesket, out in the sticks, some fifteen miles from Carlisle.
In 1976, Edward came to a big decision. He felt it was time to go it alone, in two senses. He wanted to be personally running his own show, albeit still under his father’s wing as part of the firm, as it hadn’t entered his head not to be part of Eddie Stobart Ltd. Edward, however, also wanted a chance to be able to work without his father looking over his shoulder every day. He felt it was time for the haulage part of Eddie Stobart Ltd to be separated, literally and physically, from the agricultural and fertilizing sides. He wanted to be in Carlisle, to employ Carlisle-based drivers, to be on the spot, for a change, when jobs came up.
He’d done some sums in his head, worked out how much time and money was being wasted each time they drove the fifteen miles empty into Carlisle, just to pick up a load. ‘I was fed up being at Hesket Newmarket. We’d outgrown the site, couldn’t really expand any more. The fertilizing side was not really growing and we didn’t need many more vehicles or men for that side of things. But I was sure the haulage side had a better future.’
Eddie listened to the arguments, the rationale, and willingly agreed with Edward. He says he’d been thinking much the same anyway. Edward’s own memory is that his father had to be persuaded. He remembers that, when he found a suitable site in Carlisle with a rent of £3000 a year, his father initially told him that he was ‘crackers’.
‘My dad didn’t see how I was going to make enough money to pay such a big rent. It was a big step for us, but my dad did agree it was the best thing to do, for all concerned. I will say that – he didn’t try to stop me.’
‘Edward was always the one with ambition,’ says Eddie. ‘He had always been suggesting better ways to do most things. John never had any interest at all. William was too young. But Edward always had this burning ambition. He was desperate to go into haulage.’
Once the big decision was made and Eddie saw how the family firm was beginning to split, with different parts and people going in different directions, he began to arrange a way of making it all neat and tidy. Eddie Stobart Ltd, since its creation in 1970, had consisted of three main parts: fertilizers, the farm shop and haulage. Eddie and daughter Anne were much more interested in the first two. It was therefore decided to parcel it up under a new name: Eddie Stobart Trading Ltd, which they would look after.
This left Eddie Stobart Ltd to concentrate on haulage. The bold young Edward, aged twenty-two, left the family yard in deepest, rural Hesket Newmarket, and headed for the big city, new people, new problems, new excitements.
His