History of S Jones Containers

Brief history of S Jones by Michael Jones

The beginning of S Jones shipping containers

My grandfather, Samuel ‘Sammy’ Jones became a Haulage Contractor in Aldridge, just north of Birmingham, in 1914 and transported his first consignment, reputedly cases of crockery, from Aldridge railway station by horse and cart to the local ‘Manor House’. By 1920 he had acquired his first motor lorry, a Thornycroft, and by 1936 was operating 2 lorries.

Expanding our shipping container services

His son Samuel Edward Jones, took over the business in 1936; he formed S Jones (Aldridge) Ltd, and over the course of the next 25 years built up a large fleet of tipper lorries operating throughout the UK which later diversified into general haulage. During this time the business moved from central Aldridge to its present location in Anglian Road, Aldridge.

I joined the family business in 1962, and under my fathers' leadership we progressed the business. We became Main Distributors for ERF Trucks and operated the first HGV driver training school in the country. The container revolution commenced in the UK around 1970 and our general haulage fleet developed into container transport; this led us to become one of the largest Shipping Container Depots in the Midlands storing, repairing and maintaining many thousands of shipping containers every year, an activity which continues to the present time. For a time we also operated a freight forwarding and consolidation business. We set up what became a major International road tanker fleet and transported hazardous bulk liquids throughout Europe.

In 1976 we opened a container depot and transport company in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; after operating under our control for 22 years this was sold to a Saudi owned company in 1998. My son Andrew Jones’s first position in our family business was with Trans Arabia in Jeddah.

In the mid 1990’s we opened new premises for our ERF Truck distributorship in Westgate, Aldridge; this, and the economic climate at the time, resulted in an uncertain financial situation which led to the consolidation of the family business in 1999 to the Container Depot company in Anglian Road.

Since 1999 the original Shipping Container Depot business, S Jones Containers Ltd, has expanded into other allied fields; we are now one of the country’s leading Retailers and Hirers of Shipping Containers; our Container Conversion business offers specialist container modifications for varied uses and our self storage business U Can Store It Self Storage, which was established in 2000, has extensive facilities at Aldridge and West Bromwich.

Approaching 100 years of operation

The Management Board of the Company consists of Andrew and myself as Joint Managing Directors, with Andrew heading up the operations side of the business; Jill Buckland, Company Secretary looks after finance and administration and I am also Chairman of the Company.

Approaching its’ 100th year of trading the ‘Sammy Jones’ family business continues to flourish. We look forward to celebrating our centenary in 2014 and continuing to exceed our customer’s expectations for service and cost.

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