Stobart family gets back behind the wheel of famous lorry company

The son of famed trucker Eddie Stobart has wrested back control of the family's well-known green lorries in a deal that values the 2,300-vehicle business at £280m.

William Stobart, the third son of Eddie Stobart, who founded the firm in the Lake District in the 1960s and is now 84 years old, will become the boss of Eddie Stobart Logistics, the trucking and distribution arm that is being spun out of the Stobart parent company.

Stobart Group is selling 51% of the lorry business to William Stobart and Isle of Man investment firm DouglasBay Capital. The parent company will retain 49% of Eddie Stobart Logistics and, crucially, the rights to the famous brand.

William Stobart is standing down as a director of Stobart Group to become chief executive of the new firm and will own 6% of the company. It will be the first time a member of the Stobart family has been the boss of the lorries that bear their name since Edward Stobart, Eddie's second son, who built the business into a household name, sold the firm in 2004.

Based in Carlisle but run from a head office in Soho Square, London, it was sold to William Stobart's best friend and former brother-in-law, Andrew Tinkler, for an undisclosed sum. Tinkler went on to expand the business into other activities, ranging from biomass energy projects to running Southend airport. The company was listed on the stock market in 2007, valued at £138m. Edward Stobart, who had run the company since 1973, died in bankruptcy in 2011.

Tinkler, a serial entrepreneur who owns a private jet and 45 thoroughbred horses, is still chief executive of Stobart Group and owns 9.45% of the company.

Tinkler has known the Stobarts since he was a child and got a job washing the company's lorries. After leaving school at 15 he tried his hand at joinery, sheep farming and double-glazing. He went on to found his own building company, WA Tinkler, where William Stobart joined him.

Tinkler and William Stobart married two sisters, but both relationships have soured. He said it was good that a Stobart would once again be the boss of the lorry empire. "It gives William a chance to step up," he said. "He's a very good operator."

Tinkler said the sale of half the trucking business would help return cash to shareholders, pay down debts and fund investment in the company's rail, air and biomass businesses. "We are handing some money back to shareholders. Shareholders will get a good return."

The trucking business, whose biggest customer is Tesco, made a profit of more than £25m last year. Stobart Group will invest £55m of the sale proceeds in its biomass business, spend £35m on a share buyback and repay £100m of debt.

The company has struggled to impress City investors and in 2012 Neil Woodford, then star fund manger at Invesco and Stobart's biggest investor, insisted the company appoint Avril Palmer-Baunack, who had turned around the vehicle hire group Helphire, to reorganise the company. She quit after just 10 weeks.