Eddie Stobart

Eddie P. Stobart (born 1929 ^[1] to parents John and Adelaide) is a British businessman who started an agriculture business in the late 1940s. This became Eddie Stobart Ltd in 1970, expanded to a haulage company during the 1970s with the help of his late son Edward Stobart who gradually took over the running of the company during the 1970s and 1980s, and then became a multi-modal logistics public company the Stobart Group in 2007 under the control of youngest son William Stobart.

He married Nora Boyd on 26 December 1951 and they live in Cumbria. They had four children: Anne (1952 –), John (1953 –), Edward (1954 - 2011) and William (1961 –). Eddie bought his first lorry (a Guy Invincible four-wheeler truck) second-hand from the local garage in 1960, and had it re-painted in his choice of colours: post office red and Brunswick green. He took over the collection of basic slag (a waste product of steelworks used as fertiliser) when local company Harrison Ivinson went out of business, and purchased two Ford Thames Trader trucks which were also painted in his favourite colours with his logo on the doors. A contract with ICI for storage of basic slag in 1963 enabled expansion of the business, and it became a limited company: Eddie Stobart Ltd in November 1970 with a share value of ten thousand pounds.^[2] Eddie continued to run the company until 1976, when son Edward took over running the transport side, but father Eddie continued to be involved, and retained his own separate warehouse until 1989, when he handed over full control to his sons Edward and William, retaining the title of non-executive chairman of Eddie Stobart Ltd until December 1992. The business has grown into one of the largest privately owned transport and distribution companies in England today (11/10/2016) controlling over 2,500 trucks.

Eddie's son William, retains the family involvement in the business in his position as Chief Executive Officer of the Eddie Stobart Logistics.

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