Our Story

Day Group Ltd, as it is now known, was started by John Day. At just 13 he had literally been kicked out of home to make his way in the world. After various jobs he started working as a lorry driver and coal man.

He loaded and unloaded the coal by hand and then delivered it across west London. He eventually purchased his own lorry, and then another and another….

In 1955 we moved from Hanworth to Brentford, renting part of the railway goods yard, and the Company was re-named Day & Sons (Brentford) Ltd. Our Head Office is on this same site today.

By the 1970’s our Brentford site took deliveries of coal by rail, which was delivered by our own fleet of lorries to factories, homes, offices and power stations across west London. We also carried out long distance bulk haulage and sold various products, including aggregates from different sources. The transport fleet exceeded 70 following the acquisition of Green Garage in Bedfont, which included workshop facilities and mechanics.

Having this infrastructure at Brentford resulted in an approach, in 1974, by a quarrying Company in Somerset called Foster Yeoman, who wanted us to unload trains containing limestone at Brentford, sell it and deliver it. The change from selling coal to aggregates was a huge step for us, not least because our competitors in west London, including some very big companies who had substantial local aggregate reserves, were determined not to see us prosper. But we adapted, succeeded and continued to grow.

In the 1990’s the other two brothers, Jonathan and Dominic, joined us, together with Director Nick Sadler and many other present-day members of staff. We continued to open depots across the south east and started recycling construction and demolition arisings.

Today we sell more than 5 million tonnes of aggregates from many sources into the construction sector, much of which is moved by rail, and plays a vital part in meeting society’s demands for raw materials to build and maintain the built environment. Moving so much by rail means we are meeting this demand in the most efficient way and with the lowest carbon footprint possible.

Each year we put over a million tonnes of aggregates into bags, sold by builder’s merchants across the south of England, which makes us one of the largest bagging suppliers in the UK.

As well as selling some 4 million tonnes of quarry products, each year we recycle almost a million tonnes of construction and demolition arisings and incinerator bottom ash, producing recycled aggregates close to where they are wanted. This makes us one of the largest recycling companies in the UK.

To move all this requires a formidable network of railheads, recycling and bagging plants, over 160 lorries and some 50 train loads a week, not to mention a wide range of back office functions.

These activities all happen under the name of ‘Day Aggregates’, but we also do work within the water treatment industry as ‘Day Contracting’, in the equestrian industry as ‘Day Equestrian’ and in the glass recycling industry as ‘Day Glass Recycling’.