Eddie Stobart dies aged 95: Founder of renowned haulage firm famous for naming each lorry passes away
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The founder of one of the Britain's most renowned haulage firms has died at the age of 95. Eddie Pears Stobart, who originally founded the family-named business Eddie Stobart in the 1940s, died on November 25. He was born in 1929 in Cumbria and worked as a farmer before trying his arm in the business world.
![[Eddie's (left) second-youngest child Edward Stobart (right) - so-called to distinguish him from his father - who took over the company in the 1970s and made it into a household name]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/10/93268307-14204895-image-m-2_1734517428007.jpg)
Eddie set up a small agricultural business in 1946, focusing on distributing fertiliser and doing contract work for local farms as well as running a farm shop. The first Stobart lorry arrived in 1960 in the form of a second-hand Guy Invincible four-wheeler which he repainted in green and red.
![[The business now has more than 2700 vehicles and is one of the Britain's most renowned haulage firms. Pictured: Eddie Stobart truck on the M6 toll motorway]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/10/93268327-14204895-image-a-3_1734517468060.jpg)
But Eddie was said to believe there was no money to be made in haulage, seeing his small fleet simply as 'a tool for my main business', which was distributing slag, the fertiliser by-product of industrial steelmaking. It was Eddie's second-youngest child Edward - so-called to distinguish him from his father - who took over the company in the 1970s and made it into a household name in the haulage sector with the business now owning more than 2700 vehicles.
![[Eddie Stobart, centre, arrives for the funeral of his son, Edward Stobart, with his wife Noram Boyd]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/10/93268309-14204895-image-a-5_1734517476531.jpg)
Taking over the transport side in 1976, Edward, at the age of 21, started with eight lorries and 12 employees before building it into one of Britain's biggest logistics brands. Eddie Stobart set up a small agricultural business in the 1940s, focusing on distributing fertiliser and doing contract work for local farms as well as running a farm shop.
![[The hearse of Edward Stobart is led away by three of the iconic green, red and white Eddie Stobart trucks from Carlisle Cathedral following his funeral]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/10/93268305-14204895-image-a-6_1734517497820.jpg)
