1965. The year that the Beatles played Shea Stadium, the Post Office Tower was opened, the country said goodbye to Winston Churchill, and Pizza Express opened its first restaurant in London. It was also the year Dave Sheldon acquired his first milk round in Knutsford and the seeds were sewn for today’s booming Sheldon’s Dairies, servicing 6000 clients across 16 delivery rounds. As the business celebrates its diamond anniversary, Chris Sheldon, Dave’s son and co-owner of the business alongside his brother John, shared some of the key moments in the company’s history and in particular how technology has supported their journey.

Chris joined the business in the early 1980’s straight from school and has been involved ever since. Learning every aspect of the business from his late father, he has seen many changes down the years including products available, delivery vehicles used, and the back office systems in place. But the family values which underpinned the business then are very much to the fore today. Providing the best possible customer service, going the extra mile, and giving the customer what they want.

“Dad was a pioneer and saw the opportunity to provide more than just milk”. Once he had started his business, Dave had no plans to stop at a single round. He wanted to grow the business through extending his coverage and just as importantly extending the range of products offered. As early as the 1970’s he saw the potential to introduce non-dairy items to the milk floats and acquired a fruit and veg shop to enable the incorporation of boxes for delivery. Initially this proved a logistical challenge but now it is a staple of the offering.

It was also in the 1970’s, he recognised that many customers in the remote country areas of North Cheshire which he serviced, didn’t have easy access to newspaper deliveries and started including those in the offering. Now nearly half the Sheldons customers take a morning paper.

That focus on product range has stayed a key part of the ethos, and the opportunity to capitalise on the closure of a local pet food store in 2019 and offer bulk pet food delivery was grabbed and turned into another success story.

Dave’s pioneering spirit was very much on show when it came to technology. “We were early into using computers as we saw how much time we could save versus paper based systems”. The business first invested in a solution in 1990 which allowed for roundsbooks and invoices to be printed at the office and given to the drivers. A new solution in the year 2000 allowed the drivers to have the roundsbooks on hand held devices.

It was in 2020 that Sheldons started working with Dairydata and their flagship product Paragon. Migrating to any new system can often be a fraught experience, but the process of moving to Paragon went really smoothly and as Chris shared, “the team liked its ease of use, and what the new software gave us, right from the off”. The Delivery app for drivers was really well received and the management reporting was invaluable helping Chris to focus on KPI’s such as round profitability.

And for the first time, the business now had access to an integrated e-commerce capability, YourMOO. This would enable the customer to amend their order, advise of holidays, and pay their bills all online without need for admin intervention. “YourMOO has saved us so much time and admin overhead. My wife works in the business and is now looking at halving her hours and she can because of our systems”

Sheldons customers now interact with the YourMOO system circa 3,500 times a month! Running a successful delivery business isn’t easy at the best of times, with rising costs, and competition two of the key ongoing challenges. But Chris feels confident about the future

“In our 60th year, we continue to invest in our business, our people and our offering, and we are winning new customers every day. Having the support of Dairydata and their products undoubtedly makes a positive difference to us and we are looking forward to the further exciting product enhancements due this year”