Lowfield Distribution (Sainsburys) Middleton, Manchester

Tanker Driver:

Stanfield:
Hi Tanker Driver
There are a couple of Lowfields/Sainsburys on Paul Andersons(moomooland) Northwest trucks site.

Cheers Stanfield, My Dad ‘Wally’ worked there for donkeys years, I know Paul very well, in fact hes my godfather, lol!
I’m living in New Zealand driving for BP, just after a few pics of yesteryear. I’ve seen Pauls pics, they are excellent, but I remember a few that dad had in the garage of the very early days at Lowfield and was wondering if anybody had any on this site!

Was he Wally Walton?

Lowfield Distribution started up as a Golden Wonder and HP foods joint venture for distribution, the first depot was at St Helens, Lowfield Lane, Lea Green. There was a toss up to see which name to use, Lea Green Distribution or Lowfield Distribution. I drove out of the Barnsley depot for 12 years, when I first started the company was expanding, picking up major contracts to deliver mainly food items to supermarkets, c&c and small shops. We had 8 depots on general distribution and a Sainsbury contract out of Watford I think, so long ago. Then we won the contract to run the Middleton depot for Sainsburys. Things were looking rosy for Lowfield, they used our depot to evaluate several makes of artic units pulling one of our trailers loaded with 18 pallets of HP beans south on the M1 then north on the M18 to A1M and up to J37 A1M then return to Barnsley. ERF with Gardener 230 turbo engine was preferred over Foden, Bedford TM and I think Volvo F7. We had a number of different make of units at our depot, Middleton became a priority for units and we had a new ERF with ■■■■■■■ 250 and the blue interior, I loved that motor, they took it of us and sent it to Middleton A955TBD I am sure, funny how reg numbers stick in your memory for a motor you enjoyed driving. Lowfield seemed to be getting bigger and better, picking up contracts for Asda distribution centre in Bristol, Waitrose in Tring, Togs nappies in Gateshead and HP foods primary distribution from Birmingham. The powers that be split the company into 2 seperate divisions, general distribution and contracts division, we were part of Imperial Foods group, itself part of Imperial Tobacco. Our division tried out chilled distribution called Lowfieldcool, and Lowfieldbws (beers, wines and spirits) they used the same design logo as the original but used different colours, the cool division used a light blue cab and bws used a maroony colour, they weren,t as successful as hoped and the vehicles were repainted in normal colours. Imperial group was taken over by Hanson trust and the decline started for us. No new vehicles for our division as we were not making enough profit, it got so bad eventually the new owners allowed us to buy a few old clapped out ex rental Mercs from Whittakers rental fleet, we got 2x1625s and a1628 they were absolutey clapped out, 1st or maybe 2nd gear up Windy hill on the M62 loaded with Barrs pop, a daily return load for us for onward delivery to supermarkets as Barrs did not want their vehicle waiting for hours at back doors which was normal before central distribution came along. Eventually there was a management buyout and we were led to believe great things were on the horizon, we later learned that at the same time the buyout team were busy talking to Tibbett&Britten who wanted the contracts division and Rockwood distribution who wanted general traffic division, and so we seperated. Rockwood was a fairly new set up backed by Red Adair the firefighter amongst others, they had already got hold of Tate & Lyles distribution, and had a depot at Brighouse so we were working alongside that depot calling in for top up loads as they did when near our depot, St. Helens depot closed and we got their area, the Gateshead depot had closed before that, then reopened near Bishop Auckland, that closed and reopened in Hebburn, Rockwood seemed to be buying up lots of companies Bees of Hinckley was one I remember, then the inevitable happened, our depot was closed not Brighouse. I managed to get set on at Morrisons Wakefield were I remained as a driver for the next 25 years before retiring.

Original offer of employment with Lowfields in 1981, that was some wage. :smiley:
Click on image twice to view full size.

A03156p.JPGIn 1981 when Lowfield’s opened the depot at Middleton they took over the fresh produce deliveries to Sainsbury’s which had previously been done by Garretts Green based Supalink (remember them?).

Reg No CNV 109X was was one of 21 brand new ERF ‘C’ Series Gardner 6LXCT 230 turbo engined tractor units introduced into the fleet early in 1982, all with consecutive registration numbers from CNV 99X TO CNV 130X.
In 1986/7 all the Lowfield liveried trailers at Middleton depot were repainted into Sainsburys livery.

Lowfield-001.JPG Lowfield Distribution ‘C’ Series ERF 4X2 tractor unit Reg No ONH 296Y was based at Lowfields Sainsburys contract depot on Stakehill Industrial Estate Middleton near Manchester.

Reg No CNV 107X was one of 21 brand new ERF ‘C’ Series Gardner 6LXCT 230 turbo engined tractor units introduced into the fleet early in 1982, all with consecutive registration numbers from CNV 99X TO CNV 130X.

Driven by Bob Mellor it is pictured above in 1985 while parked outside Sainsburys at Kingston upon Hull.

Reg No CNV 126X was another of the 21 brand new ERF ‘C’ Series 4x2 tractor unit’s introduced into the fleet early in 1982.

Driven by Tony May he is pictured above at the M62 Hartshead Moor service area in 1984 while cleaning the windscreen due to the washer bottle being frozen solid, a common problem in winter due to the washer bottle being exposed to the elements just behind the front grill.

Driven by Tony May Reg No CNV 126X is pictured above in March 1986 at Sainsburys Chester branch while unloading on the back door.

In August 1989 just nine months after its management buyout, Lowfield Distribution was bought by Tibbett and Britten in a £12.5 million deal.

Within three months of the buy out Tibbett & Britten invested heavily and began to replace Lowfield’s aging eight year old fleet of Gardner powered ‘C’ Series ERFs with a fleet of 46 ■■■■■■■ powered E10 ERF 4X2 tractor units.

The first batch arrived in November 1989 and were powered by ■■■■■■■ 290 engines followed by a second batch early in 1990 of ■■■■■■■ 325’s.

In October 1989 shortly before they started to arrive a number of Lowfield’s drivers were invited to go on a tour of the ERF works in Sandbach which is where the picture above was taken.

Back row left to right,
Dave Vernon, Traffic office clerk?, the late Alan Biddle, Peter Prior, Paul Anderson, Steve O’Brian (traffic manger), Trevor Boss.
Front row left to right,
Barry Holden, Wally Walton, Lee Knight.

Pictured on the fuel pump at Middleton depot in February 1990 are Lowfield drivers
the late Alan Biddle on the left with Wally Walton fueling up on the right.

E Series 4x2 tractor unit Reg No G779 TNF, powered by a ■■■■■■■ 290 engine, was new in November 1989.
After life at Lowfield’s it was exported to Malta.

G769 TNF pictured here shortly after arriving in Malta.

E Series 4x2 tractor unit Reg No G770 TNF, powered by a ■■■■■■■ 290 engine, was new in November 1989 and driven for a short time by Bob Mellor.
Having no wind deflector kit it did not last long at Middleton and was transferred to another depot after only a few months.

After Lowfield’s were bought out by Tibbett & Britten G77O TNF was transferred to another Lowfield depot after only a short time at Middleton.

Lowfields ERF.jpg E Series 4x2 tractor unit Reg No H192 DDB, powered by a ■■■■■■■ 290 engine, was one of a batch of
10 brand new ‘E’ Series 4X2 tractor units added to the fleet at Middleton in September 1990.

You Tube Clip-001.JPGIn 1995 during the restructuring of the distribution network at Sainsbury’s depots a few of Middleton’s excess tractor units and drivers were used to help out on the Woolworth’s contract out of Winsford in Cheshire.
This only lasted a few weeks and some ex Tesco urban trailers along with some TIP hired ones were used on the job.
The picture above is a still from this YouTube Video taken at Junction 18 of the M6.

Driven by Bob Mellor ERF ‘E’ Series Reg No H689 OWC is pictured pulling out of Middleton depot in 1992.
Registered new in June 1991 it was one of five new sleeper cabbed ERF ‘E’ Series added to the fleet at that time.

We used to run a couple of trailers in Savacentre livery but i have yet to find a picture of one anywhere.

Driver Ray Connolly is pictured here at the wheel of E Series 4x2 tractor unit Reg No H194 DDB,
Powered by a ■■■■■■■ 290 engine it is seen here on the Hartshead Moor service area in West Yorkshire.
In 1990 Sainsburys changed the livery of their trailers from the old orange and brown colour scheme to this blue and cream livery.

From a 1977 York-brochure

Lowfields ERF a.jpg E Series 4x2 tractor unit Reg No H196 DDB was new in September 1990.
Powered by a ■■■■■■■ 290 engine it is seen here during a trailer swap with East Kilbride depot at Penrith ■■■■■■■■
By this time all the Lowfield decal had been removed from the tractor units as they had been taken over by Tibbett and Britten.

A2.jpg’E’ Series ERF tractor unit Reg No H266 JVS was powered by a ■■■■■■■ 325 engine.
I took this picture at Sainsbury’s Whitley Bay branch when it was only a few days old on the 29th of June 1991.
One of the good things of driving for Lowfields was that you were always allocated the same vehicle unless it was
in for service so in that respect you could keep it clean and tidy as most of the drivers did.
Like many ex Lowfield Middleton depot ‘E’ Series ERF’s this one was also exported to Malta when six years old.

Another of the batch, H268 JVS driven by the late Peter Yates, made it on to the fairground circuit.
It’s chassis was extended and it was converted into a mobile generator and remained on the road until 2001.

Another shot of my motor ‘E’ Series ERF tractor unit Reg No H266 JVS which was powered by a ■■■■■■■ 325 engine.
I took this picture at Sainsbury’s Archer Road branch in Sheffield in 1992.

‘E’ Series ERF tractor unit Reg No K979 XNM was new in August 1992.
It was one of a pair in Tibbett & Britten livery at Middleton, the other being Reg No K978 XNM.
The rest of the tractor units at that time were orange.

In April 1999 all the ERF tractor units were replaced by a fleet of Scania 114L 340 4x2 tractor units.
Reg No T668 KLE, seen here when brand, was just one of a batch of 45 brand new Scania’a that Tibbett & Britten ran on contract out of the long gone Sainsbury’s Distribution Depot at Stakehill Middleton north of Manchester.

This photograph, which shows the main entrance to the depot, was taken in January 2000 seven months after a batch of 45 brand new Scania 4x2 tractor units had been introduced into the fleet.
Within twelve months of this picture being taken the depot was to close with the loss of 300 jobs and all operations moving to Haydock

Another depot shot taken in January 2000 with driver Peter James seen heading into the traffic office.
Click on image to view full size.

Tractor units ready for action, or sleeping in while waiting for your load to be assembled :smiley:

A5.jpgMiddleton depot shot showing fuel pumps and garage.