Our History

Back in the early 1970’s, Mick Masters, father of Peter, the Managing Director, was working at a Leighton Buzzard forklift factory on the production line.  Figuring “there must be more to life than this” he responded to an advert in the Leighton Buzzard Observer placed by a local print company with  spare capacity on their VW transporter “for a man to develop his own parcel delivery service”.

Mick used this spare capacity and quickly built up new business contacts in the local area by offering a sameday/next day courier service to local companies.  He was joined by his brother as a secondary van driver, and his wife assisted in running the administration.   

The company needed a name, which sprang from Clipper ships; premium express seafreight vessels.  

Within 10 years, the company was operating around 15 vans from a small warehouse in Cherrycourt Way, Leighton Buzzard, latterly to be the address of a freehold warehouse holding 6000 pallets for many blue chip companies.  In 1985 we purchased our first freehold warehouse, now known as CH1 (Clipper House 1).

In April 2011, we at Mini Clipper will be celebrating our 40th birthday, in a rare second generation family business.  The same business ethos remains, derived from Mick’s sense of fun, responsibility, attention to detail, determination to delight our clientele with our service, and total flexibility.  The print and graphics industry continues to form a significant percentage of our current customer base with all the “just in time” and fragile freight demands that come with it.  

We will always run our own fleet of trucks for total control and minimum of handling, we will always carry out our promises to you, we will always give our best, and furthermore we strive to step ahead of our competitors and be your first choice for a “Rolls Royce” freight delivery service.