Jubilee^® Clip founder fastens on to Fuso Canter

Ninety years after it gave the world the ubiquitous Jubilee® Clip, L Robinson & Co has taken a leap into the future by investing in a state-of-the art delivery vehicle.  The Gillingham-based company’s new 7.5-tonne Fuso Canter was supplied by Mercedes-Benz dealer Sparshatts of Kent – the German manufacturer’s UK dealers are also responsible for sales and support of the popular Japanese light truck range.  A Canter 7C18 model with high volume curtainside body by JC Payne (UK), of Aldridge, West Midlands, it replaced a 7.5-tonne Mercedes-Benz Vario panel van which was nine years old and which Sparshatts took back in part-exchange.

L Robinson & Co was founded in 1921 by Commander Lumley Robinson RN, inventor of the Jubilee® Clip. His worm drive hose clamp is widely acknowledged as a design classic and is still to be found in factories, workshops, garages and sheds across the globe.  As Ian Jennings, the great-grandson of Lumley Robinson and recently appointed Managing Director of the family business confirmed proudly: “We are not the only manufacturer of hose clip and clamping materials these days, but we still set the standard to which others aspire. Customers can be assured that if their clip carries the ‘Jubilee®’ trademark, then it was made here in Gillingham.”   

L Robinson & Co’s new truck is powered by a 175hp engine that not only meets Euro 5 emissions limits, but also the even more stringent – and voluntary – Enhanced Environmentally-friendly Vehicle (EEV) standard.  As with the vast majority of 7.5-tonne Canters, the new truck’s appeal owed much to its market-leading payload – L Robinson & Co makes full use of its new vehicle’s impressive carrying capacity of just under 4.0 tonnes.

The company produces a comprehensive range of clips in different styles and sizes, and exports roughly half of its annual production across the globe – the Canter is used to deliver consolidated consignments to the docks.  The balance goes to distributors and wholesalers located throughout the UK and although L Robinson & Co relies on third-party distribution partners it also assigns some of this work to its new truck.

Mr Jennings, who has just succeeded his father John at the helm, explained: “We like to retain a degree of control by delivering to our regular customers so each week we send the Canter across to the west side of the country, up as far as Liverpool then across to Hull and back down to Kent.”  The trip takes a couple of days and is made by David Bairnsfather, who has worked for the company since 1973. “He’s very well known to our customers and delighted with his new truck, not least because we specified it with optional air conditioning,” continued Mr Jennings.

 “The Canter’s clean engine technology means we won’t have any issues with the London Low Emissions Zone for many years to come while the body was as big as we could get, and capable of carrying up to 16 pallets.  “The fact that it’s a curtainsider has also made life a lot easier because it means that David doesn’t have to load and unload in a pre-determined order, as he did with the van. So should the need arise it’s now very easy for us to intervene while he’s out and about and change his delivery route.”

 L Robinson & Co’s Canter came with a three-year, unlimited mileage manufacturer’s warranty.