Founder of Haulage Firm Eddie Stobart Dies at 95

Eddie Stobart, who established the well-known haulage company, has passed away at the age of 95. The former head of the Cumbria-based business, easily identified by its distinctive green and red fleet of lorries, died on November 25. Edward Pears Stobart was born into a family of farmers in Cumbria in 1929. He initially launched the operation as a modest agricultural business in 1946, concentrating on distributing fertiliser and undertaking contract work for local farmers. In 1957, he acquired the first Eddie Stobart lorry. The company continued its fertiliser delivery services and subsequently expanded after securing a contract from Imperial Chemical Industries. The firm’s expansion accelerated during the 1970s and 1980s when his second youngest child, Edward, assumed leadership of the group’s logistics operations, increasing the business’s fleet from eight lorries to more than 2,700. However, Edward (the son) died in 2011 at the age of 56 from a suspected heart attack, having managed the business for over 30 years. Mr. Stobart (the founder) had significantly withdrawn from the firm after selling most of his trading interests in 1980 to invest in an industrial warehouse near Carlisle, where he ultimately retired with his wife, Nora Boyd. The company is now branded as Stobart Group and was acquired by the Culina Group in 2021. William Stobart, Eddie’s fourth child, currently serves as the deputy chief executive of Culina.