our history
Established in 1916 by the Turner family, James Wilby was one of four companies servicing the coal industry, by road, rail, and water across Yorkshire with depots in Pontefract, York, Hull & Dewsbury.
In the early 1970's, as the coal mining industry began to faulter, Chairman, Keith Shaw saw the need for the business to diversify into road haulage in order to remain sustainable. This move was brave and insightful as by the end of the 20th Century, the coal mining industry had pretty much collapsed across Yorkshire.
By 1976, when Keith was the depot manager, following in the footsteps of his father, the Turner family decided to break-up from the group of companies, alongside colleague John Bates, Keith purchased James Wilby from the family. John remains a shareholder and non-executive director of James Wilby to this day.
founding shareholders - John bates & keith shaw
Together, Keith & John founded a business based upon its original routes of coal becoming coal merchants, delivering coal locally but also delivering steel, timber and concrete to the construction sector.
With the vehicles and land at hand, in the 1980’s, they founded a very successful business, James Wilby Builders’ Merchants which operated from James Wilby’s present site in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire.
Seeing the need to further diversify at the start of this century, with the Pallet Networks beginning to encroach on the Haulage sector, once again, Keith ensured that the business remained relevant by becoming a founding member of the Pallet Track Network. James Wilby is depot 006 in the Pallet Track Network.
Today, as a dynamic and family run business, James Wilby employs 45 people, operates a fleet of 35 vehicles based on its’ five-acre site in Heckmondwike which benefits from excellent warehousing space, drivers’ facilities and training rooms, office space and an on-site mechanic.
For over four decades, James Wilby has serviced the construction sector in addition to several renowned household brands for general haulage, delivering palletised goods to the Wakefield District and offering excellent storage facilities, James WIlby holds the FORS accreditation and delivers in-house training for its driver workforce.
Our goal now is to reduce carbon emissions, driving towards a more sustainable logistics industry.
JWL ARCHIVES - THROUGH THE YEARS
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