Innovate Logistics, which has its headquarters at the Sherwood Business Park, was put into administration by Icelandic parent group Einskip on Monday.

But Stobart agreed an undisclosed fee yesterday to acquire Innovate Logistic's chilled and ambient goods operations –– known as Innovative Operations –– from administrators BDO Stoy Hayward.

It means the firm takes on a number of Innovate Logistics contracts, including a warehousing operation with Nestle. In addition to taking on the expected 1,300 employees, the group will take on 280 tractor units and 350 trailers.

Said Andrew Tinkler, chief executive of Stobart Group: "Our management team has a great track record of getting logistics operations to work efficiently and profitably.

"As we have done very successfully in the past, we will apply our operating model to these contracts and integrate the operations fully into the Stobart Group.

"We are committed to safe-guarding the jobs of 1,300 people who may otherwise have been unemployed and we look forward to welcoming them to the Group."

Stobart has not disclosed how much it paid for the operation. Stobart expects the newly-acquired operations to generate turnover of around £100m a year and boost the group's earnings within 12 months.