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Stobart (logistics company)

British multimodal logistics company based in Cheshire

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ16736336 ↗
Source-derived summary

Eddie Stobart Limited is a British multimodal logistics company, with interests in road haulage, rail freight, deep sea and inland waterway transport systems and deep sea port, inland port and rail connected storage facilities, along with transport, handling and warehousing facilities in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium.

Founded by Eddie Stobart at the end of the 1940s as an agricultural business in Cumbria, the company diversified into rail and other activities. It is a subsidiary of the Culina Group, which is in turn a subsidiary of Müller.

History

The business was started by Eddie Stobart in the late 1940s as an agricultural business in Cumbria. His son, Edward Stobart Junior, started working for his father's contracting business delivering agricultural material in the region. The first truck bought by Eddie Stobart in 1960 was painted post-office red and Brunswick green with yellow lettering. These colours were used for subsequent vehicles up to 1969. The company was incorporated as Eddie Stobart Ltd on 23 November 1970 as a haulage firm, and Eddie Stobart controlled the organisation fully until 1973, when, at the age of 19, Edward Stobart became CEO. In 1976 Eddie retired and Edward took full control of the road haulage business and the name Eddie Stobart Ltd in 1976, becoming Chairman.

By 1985 Edward Stobart owned 26 vehicles. The business was characterised by its Tautliner bodies.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Stobart (logistics company)” is british multimodal logistics company based in Cheshire. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Stobart, logistics and company, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 1969, 1970, 1973—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1970-11-23. For this dossier, Stobart, logistics and company is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british multimodal logistics company based in Cheshire” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16736336. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1969, 1970 and 1973.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stobart (logistics company)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stobart (logistics company) primary sources, Stobart (logistics company) archive and Stobart research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stobart (logistics company)”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Stobart (logistics company)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.