Delivering to West Wales Since 1921
About Us
1921 TEMPLETON BRICKWORKS CLOSES.
William Belt the last manager at Templeton Brickworks created Belt Transport, hauling coal from Templeton Station by horse & cart to homes, farms & businesses in the parish.
1933 CORN, MEAL AND FLOUR MERCHANTS.
Delivering coal to the farms of the parish, Bernard Belt (William & Edith’s son) saw an opportunity to ‘back haul’ and began trading grain & feed with the farmers under the watchful eye of his mother.
1935 THE FIRST MOTOR LORRY JOINS THE FLEET.
Edith Belt (Williams Widow) makes the revolutionary step of purchasing a brand new Morris Lorry with the assistance of ‘The Motor Traders Guarantee Corporation Ltd’.
1939 BERNARD BELT TAKES THE REIGNS.
Bernard Belt (William & Edith’s son) takes the reigns and diversifies further. Probably the first steps in drinks distribution were hauling churns of milk from local farms to the dairy in Whitland.
1948 LIVESTOCK HAULAGE.
The relationships within the farming community gave opportunity for further diversification with the introduction of livestock transport. No easy task but the box bodies could be stripped down to flatbeds to be used for transporting bagged milk churns.
1961 BELT BROS.
Bernard & Nancy’s sons William J Belt (Billy) & David Belt took over the business. The Industrial revolution had reached West Wales with the construction of the West Angle Power Station and the oil refineries either side of the Haven estuary. This economic boom saw the introduction of tipper lorries into the fleet.
Cattle feed was now being collected from Avonmouth and fertiliser being delivered by rail to Haverfordwest station.
1971 WJ BELT TRANSPORT & DAVID BELT TRANSPORT.
Billy & David were two very different characters and subsequently went their separate ways. WJ focused on long distance haulage and Irish traction for B&I Ferries, whilst David continued with the tipper fleet and the locally based agricultural economy.
1986 FIRST ARTICULATED LORRY FOR DAVID BELT.
The fleet by now was as versatile as ever consisting of Leyland tippers with drop sides for potato, fertiliser, milk powder & animal feed transport. By the early 80’s a 4×2 AEC flatbed had sneaked into the operation, then a 6×4 Seddon Atkinson flatbed and in 1986 it was accompanied by the first Artic in the fleet AHT219V a Gardner 240 powered Sedddon Atkinson 400.
1988 BIGGER PREMISES.
The Seddon was soon joined by a couple of ERF tractor units, Belt Transport by now was split into a local tipper fleet and a long distance artic fleet. The county was ‘exporting’ milk, potatoes & water and ‘importing’ fertiliser, animal feed, and cement. The fleet had outgrown Brynteg yard and relocated to Goose Green, a portion of land at the bottom of the village which was developed into today’s warehouse & transport complex.
2000 FOURTH GENERATION.
David & his eldest son Lyndon officially swapped roles. Another wave of Industrial revolution was about to hit West Wales with the construction of two LNG gas plants on the Haven accompanied by a 48” gas main stretching to Gloucestershire to feed the national grid. Belt Transport’s customer base was West Wales agricultural & construction focused. A multipurpose fleet of flat, trombone, curtain, low loader, refrigerated, agri tipper & bulk tipper trailers hauled across West Wales rarely venturing past Swansea.
2007 3PL DRINKS LOGISTICS.
At the end of the LNG Gas boom it was obvious West Wales was going back to sleep. Lyndon created a sister company Templeton Beer Wine & Spirit Co to supply drink to the West Wales hospitality trade. Mitsubishi Canters & Transit vans had been introduced to the fleet as a dedicated 7 days a week 3PL Drinks Logistics Division.
2011 AU REVOIR 44 TONNES.
The world was now expecting next day or same day deliveries as standard.
Since the creation of Templeton, the same day drinks wholesale business, Belt Transports the little brown ‘Templeton’ vans and lorries delivering daily to every village & town in West Wales, had built a reputation of untouchable service. This attracted 3PL custom from global brewers who could not provide the service levels being dictated from a distant M4 hub and slowly began appointing Belt Transport as their ‘3PL Final Mile’ partners for their more ‘inefficient’ West Wales deliveries.
This growth didn’t come without challenges. Sadly to maintain focus the tough decision was made to drop the 44 tonne side of the business & concentrate on dedicated drinks logistics.
2019 (BC) 3PL WAREHOUSING.
History repeated itself. In 1988 the original Goose Green warehouse was full of producers’ fertiliser, animal feeds & seed corn ready for just in time, 3PL final mile delivery. 2019 saw the warehouse facility grow to accommodate drink producers stock waiting for the sun to shine.
2023 FIFTH GENERATION.
Lyndon Belt not quite ready to step aside yet but Molly Belt has entered the building.
2026 EXCISE WAREHOUSING & ONLINE FULFILMENT.
Six years after the COVID pandemic. The consumer market has split between supporting your local & bargain internet shopping. To accommodate both worlds the warehouse has become an ‘Excise Warehouse’ where local alcohol producers can store their goods ‘Under Bond’ & also ‘plug their online shopping carts’ into the Bel Transport Warehouse Management Software and their products get magically shipped across the UK.
As Bernard Belt would say.. “Those producers needed to stick to their knitting”