Knights of Old continues to grow in spite of Brexit

The Knights of Old Group, which has its head office at Kettering Venture Park, has embarked on a further phase of expansion with the addition of 34 new trailers, worth nearly £1million.

The significant investment is vital to The Knights of Old Group where the continuous renewal of trailers has implications for road safety, worker safety and efficiency.

Paul Abbott, Knights of Old Group Director, said: “We work very closely with our vehicle suppliers and the significant investment in new trailers is vital to our continuous renewal programme. SDC trailers are manufactured to exacting standards, with the entire process under their direct control, residual values are strengthened.

“At request of The Knights of Old Group, the trailers were fitted with the latest Load Hog restraint system, which assists safe and efficient load securing, in line with DVSA load securing guidelines.”

The trailer order includes: 22 4.2m tri-axle curtainsiders, four 4m box vans and eight 4.6m step frame curtainsiders.

Paul Bratton, Director at SDC Trailers which has supplied the fleet said: “I am delighted that Knights of Old have chosen SDC Trailers for their latest order of 34 box van and curtainside trailers, which is testament to the quality of products and services we provide.

“SDC have been supplying trailers to Knights of Old for over six years and during this time we have developed an excellent understanding of their growing logistics operations. This close relationship allows us to work together to design and engineer a trailer that is best suited to their specific requirements, while also delivering a robust and highly durable product.”

The firm was started by William Knightm who began transporting goods for the local community back in 1865, using a horse and cart.

More family members joined the business and in 1918 the company began to use motorised vehicles and ‘A’ licenses were granted for three trucks on inauguration of the Road Traffic Act in 1933.

The company, which became Knights of Old Limited in 1957, moved to Cherry Hill in the village of Old, Northamptonshire. The new site enabled the company to expand by introducing warehouse facilities.

It moved to a ten-acre purpose built site adjacent to the A14 in Kettering which included 100,000 sq ft of warehousing facility in 200.

Since moving to the new site in 2000, the firm has become a multi-functional distribution company which handles more shipments in two days than it did in one month when it first moved to Kettering.

The transport turnover has quadrupled and the warehousing turnover has doubled. Staff numbers have also doubled and the company has added a further 20,000 sq ft to the site.