GB Liners Company History

Established in 1923

The modern business of GB Liners has grown out of a business established by the present Managing Director's grandfather as Bartup's Limited in Brighton in 1923.

In 1946, a small moving and storing business in Hereford was purchased from Trevor Williams and a new company was formed called Trevor Williams (Removers) Ltd. In 1972, a small business was purchased from Mr Roy Elliott in London and this became the foundation for the London branch. In 1976, Lalonde Limited in Bristol and Cheltenham was acquired. 1995 saw Greens Removals in Leeds acquired with a Cirencester branch opening in October 1996 from scratch. Similarly, the Altrincham/Manchester branch was established from a standing start in 1998. Then in 2003, parts of the International Moving Company were acquired bringing an additional branch in Cirencester together with ones in Edinburgh and Loughborough. Finally in July 2008, the Company expanded to Aberdeen by purchasing the McCormicks business.

As well as the old family business names mentioned above, the Company counts in its heritage some well know local names. Lalonde's had previously bought the removal company, Greenlands, in Hereford which was Hereford's major department store and the site is now occupied by Marks & Spencers. In Cirencester, the International Moving Company business incorporated the Loveday & Loveday business with a long, proud tradition in that area. In Manchester, the International Moving Company had acquired Bowies in Altrincham and in Loughborough the Bewley & Schepens’ name formed part of the business and they had also bought Coopers previously based in Burton-Upon-Trent.

Despite its long history, it is quite surprising how little the businesses involved strayed from their geographic roots. In Brighton, the business has been operating from offices in Trafalgar Street, Brighton since 1933 with the warehouse being built on the adjoining site in 1982. In Hereford, the business has been at Holmer Road for over 50 years with the current site being developed in stages since 1960. In London, Elliotts was operating from offices in Ealing and, following a spell in Twickenham, the business came back to Ealing in 1988. In Bristol, the business was originally established in Clifton but now operates from Avonmouth and in Cheltenham, two warehouses have been developed on the outskirts of the town. In Cirencester, Wilkinson Road has been the home of Loveday & Loveday since the 1960's and when GB Liners was established in Cirencester it also started up in Wilkinson Road. In Altrincham, we started in Atlantic Street and subsequently have moved just round the corner into George Richards Way. Bewley & Schepens was on the Derby Road Industrial Estate and our new location in Pavilion Way is very close to that.

Of course in the early years of the business, storage was carried out in multi-level buildings. In the 1970's, we moved into more developed buildings suitable for containerised storage and the basic requirement here was for as high a building as possible to enable the containers to be stacked 3 or 4 high using a forklift truck. The wheel turns full circle with the development in the 21st Century of self storage operations which need multi-level buildings. Our first Self Store was established in Cirencester and subsequently we have added facilities at Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Manchester, Loughborough, Leeds and Aberdeen.