As of Thursday 1st September 2022, Chris Skellorn aka 'Skelly' commenced working for Dugdale Nutrition as a member of the transport team. He will work as a 4 on 4 off driver, after 35 years dedicated service as a self-employed owner driver for Dugdale Nutrition.
When Chris Skellorn left school he went dairy, beef & sheep farming for Woodend Farm at Dunsop Bridge. From 1984, he drove for three years at Ashcroft Feeds based at Whalley, driving a Flat Bed Bedford TK 10 tonne truck, with no power steering!
Eric Wilkinson was one of four dedicated owner drivers for Dugdale Nutrition and approached Chris to cover him due to ill health. Starting on the 1st November 1987, Chris drove Eric's ERF 8-wheeler, 180 gardener engine with a 6-speed David Brown gear box for 18 months. Eric sadly retired during this time, due to his health, so Chris remained driving for Dugdales.
He eventually bought his own wagon, ABV 18OY, a 6-wheeler Leyland constructor which he ran for around 5 years. He then went on to buy and run another two ERF 6-wheelers up until the year 2000. Up until 2000, Dugdale Nutrition were delivering 25-30,000 tonnes of feed per year.
In 2006, Chris bought his first brand new wagon, PN06 AYL, which cost him around £70,000. He ran this vehicle for 6 years, travelling roughly 5/600,000km.
In 2012, Matthew Dugdale 'persuaded' Chris to buy a Tridem wagon C7 CGS, a model which at the time was new to this country, and was the first in the area. The tridem was used to go to farms and areas where an 8-wheeler could not. It could also carry more weight than a 6 wheeler. In turn, this maximised output and optimised profitability, overall improving our carbon footprint through making less journeys and more deliveries per journey. Therefore, Dugdale Nutrition went on to run a further 12 Tridem wagons, 8 of which are still in the fleet today, with fleet succession plan in place.
Chris has driven C7 CGS up until August 2022 after covering 891,000km and delivering around 9-9,500 tonnes per year. This wagon is now taking retirement from the Dugdale Nutrition fleet, heading to South Wales to deliver wood pellets.
After being one of four dedicated owner drivers who started out working for Dugdale Nutrition - Eric Wilkinson, John Baines and Henry Taylor - Chris Skellorn is the 'last one remaining' from the original team!
We would like to welcome 'Skelly' as an official member of the Dugdale Nutrition team, after his long and dedicated service to us so far. Matthew Dugdale adds, "We look forward to having his cheerful presence with us for many more years to come!"