Company History
1938 Vernie Dawson a young 18 year old established the business as a coal merchant, £50.00 purchased a horse a cart and a load of coal, the business was born.
1944 The first lorry was purchased leading the company into road haulage.
1953 Newport Road depot was purchased to house the growing transport fleet.
1954 The company was Incorporated, A V Dawson Ltd.
1963 Purchased the Gateshead company of P G Walton, the purchase was to add a Long Trailer licence to the existing Dawson fleet.
1964 Vernie and Eleanor's 25th wedding anniversary (Our founders) was spent in the London High Courts successfully defeating the Licensing Authority against their decision to award an extension to the companies A licence. today A licences are no more, the A licence was replaced by an Operators Licence.
1965 Purchased a 2 acre site in Lloyd street Middlesbrough to house the growing fleet, building new maintenance and office accommodation.
1971 Maurice Dawson became Managing Director having worked in all parts of the business from leaving school initially in the workshops, then as an HGV driver and in transport management.
1973 The 1960`s was a growth period and even larger premises were required, 5 acres of Dents wharf was purchased.
1974 A further purchase of more land and buildings was made adjacent to the original 5 acres raising the site size to 10 acres and adding a further 20000 sq ft of buildings.
1975 Yet another land purchase was made adding a further 4 acres and a further 18000 sq ft of buildings.
1978 Entered into a rental agreement on 5 acres of land from the THPA, the site was called Middlesbrough Wharf and bordered the above land ownership.
1979 Purchased our first Nicola Hydraulic heavy haulage trailer capable of transporting 150 tonnes, a Scania 200 tonne tractor unit was purchased to pull the trailer, the combination cost £180000.00 representing the most expensive vehicle the company ever purchased.
1979 A new Block Pavier road was laid to serve the additional traffic the haulage fleet created, also to major alterations were made to the site buildings turning the site into a small Trading Estate, building from 1280 sq ft to 8000 sq ft were created for rental, a new era was created.
1980 The company W G Thomas Ltd was purchased, this purchase was made to prop up tonnage lost to works closures caused by the the recession and major turn down in the local economy.
1984 The Recession hit the company hard resulting in the company making major cut backs.
1985 Granted a Licence to act as Stevedores and re-opened Middlesbrough Wharf using National Dock Labour hired in from the THPA.
1986 Purchased the British Steel owned Ayrton Rolling Mill following its closure in 1985. The Mill was purchased to enable the company to build a unique Rail Head to serve the Northern markets and build traffic flows for the haulage fleet.
1987 Commenced building over one mile of rail track to serve the Ayrton Rail Head site.
1988 Michael Portillo officially opened the Ayrton Rail Head site, the event coincided with the companies 50th Anniversary, the companies founders, Chairman Vernie Dawson, and Eleanor, Vernie's wife and joint Managing Director attended the opening, this was to be the last function the Vernie attended as his health started to fail him.
1989 The National Dock Labour Scheme was abolished by the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher. The abolition enabled the company to operate the wharf with in house labour and at competitive rates.
1990 Refurbished Dawson No 1 quay creating a 120 metre berth with a 5 metre concrete piled support paid for heavy ship loading cranes.
1990 Our founder and company chairmen Vernie Dawson died following a long illness.
1990 Our first Ruston - Bucyrus crane was purchased from Runcorn.
1990 A contract was awarded by British Steel to load long sections into their chartered ship M V Elke, a 2000 tonne Box hold vessel, the contract was held for 10 years loading the vessel twice per week en-route to Antwerp and Vlissingen.
1990 Tees- Fert was founded, Tees-Fert was a fertiliser blending company, the company was housed in the Ayrton Rail Head the company was sold to P B Kent Ltd in 1994 by which time is was selling 50000 tonnes of fertiliser products.
1991 Refurbishment of Dawson No 2 berth commenced, the berth opened early 1992 giving a further 120 metre berth with an 80 metre concrete pad for heavy wharf cranage.
1992 Purchased our second Ruston - Bucyrus crane to service no 2 berth.
1994 Tees- Fert was sold to BP B Kent Ltd who merged their business with ours to create the biggest Fertiliser blending business in the North East, the two business were housed in the Ayrton Rail Head site, the joint import tonnage was imported over Dawson's wharves.
1997 A 20000 sq ft Bulk Store extension was built at Ayrton to accommodate the growing fertiliser business at a cost of £800000.00.
1998 Linthorpe Dinsdale Offshore Fabrication site was purchased from Kaverna, the site boarded our own sites and added a further 22 acres to the overall land ownership, in addition a further 200000 sq ft of quality buildings came with the site including the unique Fabrication Halls standing at 45 metres high. The site was renamed North Sea Supply Base, the emphasis of this site is to attract North Sea fabrication work.
1999 A five year joint venture business was entered into with Sarens who provided a 600 tonne heavy lift Rosencranz crane, this crane is the heaviest lift crane on the River Tees.
1998 A 250000 tonnes per annum Rail Head contract was won with Corus Strip Mill products to receive steel coil for their North East customer base.
1999 An £800000 investment in new vehicles was made with the purchase of new Scania tractor units and Corus built Cabriolet coil carrying trailers.
2000 Eleanor Dawson our Joint managing director died, Eleanor worked as company secretary and joint Managing Director well in to her 70's.
2000 Gary Dawson appointed Managing Director after 8 years in the company with Maurice taking the role of Company Chairman.
2002 The 6 acre site that was formally rented from the THPA following privatisation of the port became the property of P D, P D agreed to sell the site thus ending 28 years of renting, this purchase allowed the Linthorpe Dinsdale site to be connected by a new road scheme which was built in 2003. In addition and at the same time the 22 acre Linthorpe Dinsdale site was totally overlaid with a new hard surface of block paviours and concrete wharf frontage area's.
2003 Purchased our first Gottwald Mobile Harbour Crane, the crane an HMK 170 E was purchased in Venice and shipped via Ro-Ro vessel, unloading was direct on to our own newly built NSSB No 2 berth.
2004 A new 150000 tonnes per annum haulage contract was won with Corus at the Skinningrove plant.
2004 Awarded a service contract taking over 14 men under a TUPE agreement serving the Corus Skinngrove site, this contract takes the company into yet another diversification, but within an industry that we understand.
2004 The five year agreement with Sarens expired, resulting in the purchase of the Rosencranz Crane.
2004 The formation of Tees Valley Trailers. TVT is a trailer hire and trailer sales company , both new and used trailers are sold.
2007 Tees Valley Coatings, a commercial shot blast and paint shop was formed to service the growing trailer fleets of Dawson's and Tees Valley Trailer hire, plus offering the offshore fabricators on site shot blasting and painting.
2007 Awarded an addition to the 2004 Corus skinningrove service contract, taking a further 25 men under a TUPE agreement, the contract involves cleaning Scale from under the rolling mill, a new self loading dumper will be introduced thus making the work safer.
2008 The company employs 130 people, operates a mulitimodal distribution hub on 70 acres on River Tees frontage incorating Rail Freight Facilities, Port Opertions, Road Transport and Warehousing. The company provides asset based logistics and supply chain management taking care of the freight requirements of loacl, national and international markets.
