Ernest Thorpe Transport was founded way back in 1921 by Ernest Thorpe himself. Until its liquidation, the company remained in the family. David Ian Thorpe’s signature can be seen on the liquidation documents uploaded to Companies House.
The aforementioned documents show a long line of creditors, from banks to HMRC to various individuals as well as companies large and small. Among the haulier’s liabilites were almost £416,000 worth of redundancy packages. In addition to this, there was a payment in lieu of notice for 20 staff.
The haulage firm began with one vehicle before expanding to acquire a large site in Thurgoland. As The Star reports, the company’s green-liveried vehicles “became a familiar sight across South Yorkshire and well beyond.”
The Star adds that Ernest Thorpe, known for its slogan ‘The Service That Satisfies’, had been hauling steel in and out of Stocksbridge for tens of years.
According to its website, in 2018, Ernest Thorpe’s fleet consisted of mainly maximum capacity artics with flat and curtain sided trailers. It also sported a range of flat rigid vehicles from 7.5 tonnes to 24 tonnes.
News of the company’s demise has come as sad news to fans of independent, family-run haulage companies. Fan-made videos with photos of the haulier’s fleet have appeared on YouTube to pay tribute to the now-liquidated 101-year-old company.
The demise of Ernest Thorpe comes at a time of relatively intensive M&A activity, with big players such as Culina snapping up well-known and established independent hauliers.
Photo: Richard Says / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (image cropped)