Batleys' Golden Anniversary 1958-2008

In the past 52 years cash and carry has come a long way and that's all thanks to Lawrence Batley.

In April 1958, when Lawrence Batley invented cash and carry by opening the first depot in Huddersfield, little did he know he would revolutionise the way the independent trader ran their business in the future.

From the start, Lawrence proved to be very hands on, taking the responsibility of ordering goods through to selling them and even completing the book keeping.

Lawrence became the first person, in May 1962, to open an architect designed warehouse, despite the widely held belief that such a cheap operation could not afford such luxury. This enabled him to extend his range of goods taking in confectionery and non foods. Provisions such as bacon and butter were to follow at a later date.

As the cash and carry business took hold, a second depot was opened in Sheffield in 1969 and in 1973 the third warehouse in Bradford followed. The business grew from strength to strength expanding into Lancashire. Between 1985 and 1988 five further branches were opened. A further seven depots were to follow creating a nationwide chain of 18 branches by the year 2000.

In 1987, Batleys diversified into catering products, producing a range of own label products for the independent caterer. Nearly 20 years later, in 2005, a delivered catering operation was born from the Cleveland depot.

1990 saw Batleys diversify into the Petfood business, opening the doors to the first petfood cash and carry in Doncaster in 1990. To this date Batleys operates 17 petfood cash and carry depots.

In January 2005 the Besway Group acquired Batleys PLC. Once Bestway's main rival in Northern England, today Batleys is now part of the Bestway group of companies. The locations of Bestway and Batleys depots are highly complementary with Bestway's strength in the Greater London Region, South East of England and Wales and Batleys dominance in the North of England and Scotland. The total group presence in the UK amounts to 51 depots nationwide. This makes Batleys / Bestway the number 2 cash and carry in the UK.

Following the takeover by Bestway and subsequent sale of the delivered petfood business Batleys still recognised the potential of delivered petfood and subsequently launched its own delivered service operating from eight delivered depots under the Bestpets banner.

2008 marked the 50th Anniversary for Batleys, celebrating the time when Lawrence Batley pioneered the cash and carry business.