After 105 years of family ownership Worcester’s best known removals company G.W. Lamb is up for sale.
Owners George Lamb and his sister Margaret Sayers are retiring at the end of the year and are looking for a buyer to take over the business. “Neither of us has any children and there is no one to pass the business on to so we’ve decided it’s time to sell,” said George.
The company was started by George’s great grandfather George W. Lamb, affectionately known in the family as George I - the present George W. Lamb is the fourth to bear the family name. He was a blacksmith who had a sideline delivering furniture using a horse and dray. George also provided a rather macabre service transporting bodies to the cemetery, sometimes storing them overnight in his blacksmith’s shop; how times have changed! Later his son George II started a second-hand furniture shop in Worcester and apparently became something of a Dell Boy in the town. Unfortunately things didn’t work out and the business fell on hard times eventually sending George II into bankruptcy. Undaunted he worked hard to pay off his debts and started the removals company proper.
Everything went well until the outbreak of war when the government seized the company’s vehicles. The present George’s father, George III who had been working in the business, was called into military service rising through the ranks to Sergeant Major. After the war he set about re-starting the removals business. In those days that was no mean feat because unlike today you needed a licence to operate. Despite the difficulties George fought tooth-and-nail to get back into the business and eventually succeeded. The company’s red and yellow vans soon became a familiar sight on the streets of Worcester.
Today Lambs operates a small fleet of four vans and employs four staff, two drivers and two porters. The company’s 20,000 sq ft warehouse in the centre of Worcester has excellent loading and unloading facilities and would make an ideal Midlands location for a larger organisation. “We really need to find a buyer by December when our lease is up for renewal,” said George. “Our landlords are aware of our intention to sell the business and there will be no difficulty in obtaining a new lease.”
Please contact George or Margaret on 01905 25204, or e-mail George-lamb@tiscali.co.uk, for more details.
Photo: Top photo; a picture of the vehicles used by Lamb Removals, and above; George on the left, his dad sitting in the middle on a box, and his sister Margaret on the right.