Our history

In the early part of the last century, the Langdons were farmers and trappers in West Somerset. The family was led by the formidable Bessie Langdon, who built up a successful business trading in rabbit, poultry, and egg products. In 1955, the company diversified into road haulage with the formation of Tone Vale Transport.

Philip Langdon, along with his brother William, developed the road haulage business in the late 50s and 60s. During this period, the company diversified into refrigerated haulage by creating Taunton Meat Haulage. By the early 1970s, Langdons’ interests included warehousing and cold storage as well as the two growing haulage firms and a Mercedes-Benz car dealership.

William Langdon died in 1967, but Philip Langdon continued developing the business until 1974 when he sold it to TKM Ltd, which named the group of companies they had purchased Langdon Industries Ltd. Philip Langdon was retained as managing director, and the company prospered under its new owners throughout the remainder of the 70s. By 1980, Philip Langdon was nearing retirement and became the part-time Chairman. TKM appointed Mike Donoghue as managing director in 1983, and Mr Langdon retired from the business.

In 1985, TKM decided to sell all their transport subsidiaries, and the directors, led by Mike Donoghue, took the opportunity to buy the company, which was achieved in April 1986. It was decided at the time to retain the Langdon trading name, but rebrand. 

In 1996, the ChillNet brand name was established to represent the Chilled & Frozen network – a partnership formed between Langdons and a number of UK & Irish hauliers. In 1997, the decision was made to withdraw from general haulage and focus on the temperature-controlled side of the business. ChillNet continued to grow, with a new depot opened in Peterborough in 2000. In early 2002, our trading partner Tom Granby (Liverpool) Ltd was sold to DBC Foodservice. Shortly after that, in October 2002, their transport operations at Liverpool & Luton were transferred to Langdons.

In 2004, Langdons was purchased by the Nagel Group of Versmold, Germany. During this period, the business grew substantially, focusing on the core business – our UK chilled and frozen distribution network. Nagel’s Dover depot joined our network, along with new depots which opened in Redditch (2004), Barnsley (2010), Redditch replacement (2011), Motherwell (2014), and Liverpool replacement (2019).

In 2021, STEF Group acquired Langdons from Nagel-Group, marking a significant milestone in our journey. This acquisition enabled us to expand our presence in the UK while strengthening our capabilities in temperature-controlled food logistics across Europe.

As part of the STEF Group, our trading name changed to STEF Langdons Ltd., highlighting our enhanced ability to offer high-quality logistics services backed by a robust European network.

A new STEF Langdons livery was launched and began appearing on trucks, trailers, and signage.

In 2024, Langdons expanded its UK presence by acquiring Long Lane Deliveries, a family-run logistics company based in Scotland. This strengthens our service offering across the UK, adding 330 employees and 140 vehicles to our operations. The acquisition is part of STEF Group’s strategy to enhance food supply chain services, providing even more comprehensive logistics solutions to our customers.