Historic family firm teams up with trailer giant to target future growth

Sam Turner & Sons Ltd provides farm and garden supplies, country clothing and garden machinery from four stores across North Yorkshire and South Durham.

The historic firm, which employs 150 people, has now taken the next step in its remarkable success story by becoming a distributor for Ifor Williams Trailers (IWT).

Bosses at Sam Turner & Sons say they are delighted to have hooked up with IWT, which has a worldwide reach through its market-leading products.

Sam Turner & Sons Ltd was founded on January 1, 1931, and is an iconic brand throughout its local area, affectionately known by locals as Sammie’s or Turner’s.

It has stores at Northallerton, Piercebridge, Stokesley and Leyburn – its Northallerton and Piercebridge sites also have popular cafes.

Charlie Turner, a director at Sam Turner & Sons Ltd, said the firm joining Ifor Williams Trailers’ 50-strong network of distributors across the UK was a significant moment in the company’s illustrious history.

Charlie, who runs the business with his father, John, along with cousins Sam and Ben, said both firms had a lot in common.

Charlie, a great-grandson of the company’s founder, said: “We have a lot of shared values and a shared ethos of how we like to look after customers and how we like to look after the people who work here.

“I really do think the way we operate aligns perfectly with Ifor Williams Trailers and what became apparent through the process was the value and the pride Ifor Williams has in its products and the dedication it has in providing a quality service and a quality product.

“Those values and that pride is something we also have at our company.

“It is so important that our customers before, during and after a sale are entirely satisfied with the process and Ifor Williams Trailers provide that level of service.”

Charlie said the stock of Ifor Williams Trailers will mainly be at the company’s large Northallerton site, with some at Piercebridge and Stokesley.

He said: “It’s exciting, it’s daunting, but it’s a very positive move for the business.

“Now we are an Ifor Williams distributor, we have basically created a new department.

“It will have its own dedicated team, its own dedicated staff, it’s an exciting development for us.

“We have got a lot of really good people here, some have worked for the company for 20, 30, in some cases 40 or more years, and we have got some of our best colleagues involved in this.

“They know how we work as a business, and the level of customer service we expect, which is so important.”

Charlie explained Ifor Williams had given the company an area to sell its world famous trailers, which is about a 30-mile radius of its Northallerton site.

Sam Turner & Sons Ltd was established in 1931 by Sam Turner and his son Eric, originally at a small warehouse in Eston, Middlesbrough.Over the years the firm has moved and expanded, but has retained its strong family-owned tradition.

Eric’s two sons, John and Michael, continued the tradition by joining the company, and they were made directors in 1973. Their sons, Sam, Charlie and Ben Turner are now in the business, taking the directorship of the company into the next generation.

The Sam Turner’s site in Northallerton is the firm’s largest store.It is a 36,000 sq ft building on a six-acre site with more than 100 car parking spaces and employing around 100 people.

As a whole, the company has more than 50,000 different lines across its core business of farm and garden supplies, garden machinery, toys and country clothing.

Charlie Turner added: “There is no doubt we are a unique store to the North of England offering a huge range of products with old-fashioned customer service provided as standard.”

IWT has global reach with its market-leading products – made in its six factories in Denbighshire and Flintshire, in North Wales. They are sold in outlets across Europe and as far afield as Australia and New Zealand.First established in 1958, it is Britain’s largest manufacturer of trailers up to 3500kg gross weight, delivering trailers for a wide variety of purposes.

It invests heavily in research and development to produce the most sought after trailers designed to meet the needs of real people doing real jobs.

Its network of UK distributors is bolstered by a growing number of overseas distribution agents with exports now accounting for about a quarter of IWT sales.

Ifor Williams Trailers Head of Manufacturing Richard Bull is delighted that they have signed up Sam Turner & Sons as a distributor.

He said: “This is a flagship company in North Yorkshire, deservedly very successful and with a totally professional approach to all that they do.

“From our perspective they’re well-known for the high standard of their customer service which gives us the confirmation and confidence that they will look after our customers exceptionally well.

“What I also pick up with them is their strong family values and in that regard they have the same DNA as Ifor Williams Trailers."