Welcome
Welcome to ckwppsacks.co.uk, the website of Connolly Keiller & Whitburn sack merchants. We work closely with farmers and agricultural merchants in the North East and throughout the UK to ensure we stock the right products for their requirements such as for crushed barley, rolled oats, whole wheat, maize, peas, beans and pulses. We supply the building trade and manufacturing industry but can also cater for other specialist applications from our standard bag range. View our Offers section for current deals!
From left to right our founders circa 1912: James E. Connolly, James Keiller & Herbert Whitburn
Connolly Keiller & Whitburn has traded in sacks since 1850 when our founder Patrick Connolly converted his lodging house for sailors off the dock road in Liverpool into a marine store which also traded in jute sacks. We are now one of the oldest sack merchants still trading in fabric bags.
Herbert Whitburn joined the firm in 1894. James Keiller, formerly, the owner of the Greenock Sack Company, joined the firm in 1897. In 1912 Connolly Keiller & Whitburn was incorporated. In the General Strike of the 1926, our firm was one of the few able to keep operating. The ladies who worked as bag reclaimers at the time when taunted by the strikers were heard to shout "We don't need to strike! Our boss is a good boss!"
In the 1940s the firm passed into the ownership of the Whitburn family and is still owned by them to this day. The company continued to operate during the war providing bags for tank parts and aeroplane components as well as sandbags for protecting Liverpool city's buildings. The factory was burnt down in 1941 by a stick of incendiary bombs, but was quickly restored into production.
In the early 1970's we were one of the first British manufacturers to start manufacturing woven polypropylene sacks and relocated to Durham in 1974 having purchased a new plant after closing the Liverpool factory.
The company is again a sack merchant, having closed down our manufacturing operation in the early 1990's. We now source our polypropylene sacks from a proven and reliable source in the Far East. Due to bulk handling in both agriculture and industry, the sack industry has declined in Europe but we are still able to handle any order, large or small. Our personal attention is dedicated and assured.