I have very few photos from our Ford contract days in the 90’s. The first two are again taken from a brochure while the third I took from just outside our office. The first photo shows an aerial shot of our premises. When we first took over yard we had to have white lines painted and numbered so we could find the cars or vans that had to be worked on. Little did we know that the parking area would be nowhere big enough as Ford needed more and more promotional vehicles to be in our care as they ramped up the number of different models in their range. Virtually all the vehicles seen in advertisements or the Motor Shows at that time were from our fleet and looked after by us.
In the main building we had valeting bays and spray booths as well as stores and the mess rooms. Tom Miles also looked after the fleet from here but soon he was relocated to another factory unit down the road. We could have done with premises twice the size especially when the Fashion Show business was in full swing.
TNT operated a fleet of vehicles from next door operating on the Newspaper contract out of Wapping (I think). We always hoped they would move so we could take over their yard but they never did and anyway there wasn’t enough money in the Ford contract to cover it.
One thing eagle eyed readers may have noticed is that the company name has been changed to Promotor Europe PLC. This was a precursor to the sale of the company, something Peter had in mind for a number of years.
Please click on a photo to enlarge it.
