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Elddis unveils celebratory 'new' livery
Page 14
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ELDDIS TRANSPORT, whIch can trace its ongins back to the 19th century is celebrating the life of founder Siddle C Cook with a new truck painted in its old livery.
Nigel Cook, MD of the Consett, County Durham-based company, whose grandfather would have been 100 last week, surprised the rest of the family with the liveried-up Megaspace Actros.
Siddle C Cook ran one of the largest heavy haulage businesses in the UK until its sale in the 1960s, and was then a founder of Elddis Transport, acting as chairman until his math in 1993.
Cook says: "I have a deep personal respect for my grandfather, but I also think we need to pay tribute to the great history of the UK road transport industry.
"Since the invention of the motor vehicle, it has contributed hugely to the social and economic progress of this country and still does. Men such as Siddle C Cook helped make that happen."
• Elddis Transport celebrated its anniversary with a 117% increase in pre-tax profits for the 12 months to 31 December 2008, from £133.254 to £289,523.
Turnover also increased to £24.3m from £23.4m, "In 2008 we lost 60 employees across the business through a mixture of natural wastage and redundancies.
-We also reduced the fleet from 170 to 150 HGVs," Cook says.
-Since January, it has still been tough, but we are managing to hold our own and also to make sure we are controlling margins," he admits.