private industry logistics founded 1940s founder james irlam headquarters chelford cheshire england uk key people david irlam ceo revenue 50 million 2007 net income 1.2 million 2007 number of employees 674 2008 parent stobart group subsidiaries irlam storage llp website www.jamesirlam.co.uk james irlam & sons ltd later trading as james irlam logistics was a british road haulage company founded in the 1940s by james irlam . it was owned and run by the irlam family until its acquisition by rival logistics firm the stobart group in april 2008 for 59.9 million . contents 1 history 1.1 the beginning 1.2 ken irlam takes over 1.3 passing to the grandsons 1.4 sale to the stobart group 1.5 red lorries.com ltd 2 see also 3 references 4 external links history edit the beginning edit james irlam & sons ltd was founded by james irlam in the 1940s in manchester . following the development of manchester airport the business re located to chelford cheshire . the business transported milk churns to manchester dairies and returned with corn supplies for local farms . ken irlam takes over edit his son ken irlam later took over the running of the firm . in 1964 the firm operated from just one truck . passing to the grandsons edit the business later passed to ken irlam s four sons david irlam michael irlam andrew irlam and stewart irlam . david irlam became chief executive michael irlam became managing director andrew irlam became operations director and stewart irlam became finance director . andrew sold his 25 % share of the business to his three brothers in 2004 to pursue ventures in commercial property . by 2007 james irlam had grown to such an extent that it had major clients including procter & gamble b & q groupe danone coca cola ministry of defence united kingdom unilever tesco johnson & johnson mars incorporated golden wonder britvic and glaxosmithkline . sale to the stobart group edit at the end of 2007 its rival the stobart group who shared some of the same clients as james irlam approached the irlam family with a view to acquiring their firm . in january 2008 ken irlam died and shortly afterwards david irlam michael irlam and stewart irlam agreed to sell james irlam & sons ltd and its subsidiary irlam storage llp for a total consideration of 59.9 million to the stobart group . the deal announced on 10 march 2008 and completed on 4 april 2008 was for 36.2 million in cash 10 million in new stobart group shares and 13.7 million in loan notes . as a result the irlam family now own 2.88 % of the enlarged stobart group . david irlam also joined the board of directors of the stobart group as an executive director . initially the james irlam brand and livery were to remain but james irlam has since been completely integrated into the core eddie stobart ltd business and re branded under the core eddie stobart brand name . david irlam stepped down from the stobart group board of directors on 8 march 2011 but remains with the stobart group in the same title of executive director . red lorries.com ltd edit on 18 september 2012 red lorries.com ltd was set up as a registered company with companies house directors of the company are david irlam and michael irlam . see also edit stobart group eddie stobart references edit irlam brothers sell to rival eddie stobart external links edit james irlam logistics official website coordinates 53 16 12 n 2 16 57 w 53.27000 n 2.28250 w 53.27000 ; 2.28250 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title james irlam & oldid 673617715 categories transport operators of the united kingdomhidden categories use dmy dates from november 2013use british english from november 2013coordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 29 july 2015 at 11 02 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view