Brought articulated vehicles into fleet

The company started its longest standing relationship with one if its customers and is still going strong.

Pete and then Joey joined the family business. Both of them obtained their HGV Licenses on their 21st birthdays.

They rented their first warehouse – in Wellington Street, Burton.

Dennis unfortunately passed away and the family continued with the business with Norma as chairman.

The family bought an old aircraft hangar, which was being used for warehousing, together with the five acres of land at Foston to form a base for their growing logistics operation. This hangar and site had been part of the Church Broughton Airfield where Sir Frank Whittle had developed the jet engine during the Second World War. The company formally changed its name from George Clarke (Derby) Limited to Ascott Transport Limited.

They doubled their freehold warehousing capability by building a modern extension to the ‘old’ hangar. All the time, customer demands were leading them to provide more and more warehousing so they were continually renting units to meet these demands. In the decade from first acquiring the hangar, they had purchased adjacent land and property extending the overall site at Foston to over 2 acres.

They had extended their existing warehouse at Foston again and built offices for their ever growing staff numbers – one of their purchases had been an old adjoining poultry farm extending to 11 acres which had provided 110,000 sq ft, albeit low-level warehousing.

Due to two of ATL’s trading partners requiring service provision in Carlisle, ATL obtained new warehousing totalling 250,000 sq ft and office accommodation for its growing staff requirement. ATL now represents the national Palletline network in Carlise and Burton/Derby areas.

Construction of a new workshop and more offices had been completed and a new 190,000 sq ft high density warehouse, with a gatehouse and additional office accommodation, was underway.

ATL built an additional 15,000 sq ft office at Foston and acquired other outposts strategically placed across England, including Marchington in Staffordshire and Durham. It now had 90 commercial vehicles and 150 trailers. The growth of the business surpassed £20m turnover, which had doubled in less than 10 years, and had approximately 220 members of staff.

ATL officially opens the larger high-bay 190,000 sq ft warehouse at Foston which twice the capacity of its existing warehouses.

The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, officially opened ‘ATL Midlands Hub’ in Foston on 6th September 2018 to celebrate its recently built high-spec distribution centre and office facility.