Chris Kelly biography

Chris Kelly formed Keltruck Limited in 1983, at which time the company was awarded the Scania franchise for the West Midlands. Nine years later he acquired an interest in East Midland Commercials Limited which became the Scania Distributor for the East Midlands. In November 2004 this was acquired by Keltruck enabling the company to cover the entire Midlands region. Keltruck went on to acquire Silurian Scania (which covers the Herefordshire and South Wales territories) in 2011, taking the company up to 21 operating locations.

Chris is the founder and sole shareholder of Keltruck which today turns over almost £100m per annum and employs more than 460 people. Keltruck is currently the largest, privately owned dealer in the Scania worldwide network.

Chris was born in Manchester in 1949 and aged one came to live in Wolverhampton with his mother and policemen father, also named Chris Kelly. After leaving school at 15 to become an apprentice panel beater, he then moved into truck sales with the highly successful Ryland Group in Birmingham. By 25 he had formed West Midland Trucks Limited in Wolverhampton, selling used trucks. He later developed the rental market, renting new, high value trucks and trailers and, after four years of trading, he was buying many brand new Scanias for rental. It was this which lead to Chris being offered the Scania franchise.

Chris has been married to Sonia since 1972 & they have two adult children, Nicola & Christopher. Chris's interests include driving, shooting & flying helicopters. 

Upon his retirement from the business in March 2012, Chris commented:

"Though time has flown by, and having worked for 48 years, health issues meant that I was finding it a little difficult to ride my motorbikes, amongst other things, and so I decided to retire at 63 and spend as much time as I could riding my bikes and driving one or two old cars I own. Having been a fan of the Manx TT for many years, I concluded that there was no better place for me to be than where motorbikes and cars are welcome, and not least where crime is very low, and to retire to live on the Isle of Man with Sonia. I couldn't be happier here but, unfortunately, my days are flying by even quicker! Keltruck has a great management team – the best in the industry – and I have no doubts at all that they will take the company from strength to strength."