Our company history
FD Todd started the business in 1900, from a village just outside of Thirsk. From the outset the company was involved in Quarrying and Road building, mining stone from quarrying sites on the sides of the Hambleton Hills, and using this stone to build roads with steam engines such as the first paved road from Sutton Bank to Helmsley.
After the First World War, F D Todd was joined in the business by his four Sons, Jack, Joe, Frank and Harold. The business grew in size and added a number of trucks to the quarrying activities that were brought back from the First World War.
During this period a few coaches were added to the business activities and the quarrying of aggregates was wound down to be replaced with the transportation and merchanting of aggregates of quarried stone and sand. F D’s sons took over the running of the business and during the 1940’s and 1950’s the company grew the transport fleet within the old closed license system operating within the North Yorkshire area and hauled a lot of agricultural produce to Hull and the North East.
During the late 1960’s Jack, Joe & Frank retired leaving Harold and his son Ken to lead the company. Ken developed the aggregate merchanting business, expanding this activity in the 1970’s into heavy side builder’s merchants. Harold retired in 1980, but kept a keen interest in the company’s progression. During the early 1980’s Ken Todd bought the first skip truck and started to supply skips in the Thirsk area, disposing of the wastes into our own landfill site. The late 1980’s brought a further expansion of the company in ready-mix concrete. The company became incorporated in 1962 under F D Todd & Sons (Haulage) Ltd.
In the early 1990’s it was becoming clear that great opportunities lay in the area of waste recycling, the company bought its first crusher and started to produce a crushed concrete aggregate, and a screen from which topsoil were recovered.
By the mid 1990’s it was evident that the historic company based of St James Green in Thirsk was too small. With the assistance of the local council, the company moved to a new purpose built premises on Thirsk Industrial Park, the first licensed waste transfer station in the extended area.
During this time, Ken’s son Richard Todd took over the running of the business with the support of his sister Julie and brother Peter, building on the foundations of skip hire, to expand the business with the acquisition in 1999 of a waste transfer station in the York area and three years later in 2002 with the acquisition of a Landfill site and Quarry at East Knapton.
Almost 100 years to the date of the company operating quarries on the edge of the Hambleton Hills, the company went back into quarrying again.
Since 2000, the pace of change within the waste management sector has increased exponentially. F D Todd & Sons is ideally suited to take advantage of such changes in the market place, over the last 100 years we have proven ourselves time and time again that we are a forward moving company and will continue to be.