FROM the Ford Model T of the early 1900s to the contemporary Yamaha ATV, Kingston Industrial Garage (KIG) is listed among few companies anywhere that can stand behind 100 years of service.

KIG, Jamaica’s pioneering car dealership, boasts the distinction of being the first Ford dealer outside of the US and the longest serving Ford representative worldwide.

In fact, sitting in the company’s Spanish Town Road showroom is one of the few remaining Model T motor cars — the world’s first mass-produced vehicle built by Ford Motor Company in the early 1900s.

“We actually started out selling Ford cars in 1907 and had our first sales agreement in 1908,” current general manager Major Hugh Blake told Auto during a tour of the expansive Kingston 11 complex.

“We are the oldest existing Ford dealer in the world,” he confirmed, adding that more than twenty-five Model Ts were sold here in the early days.

According to information documented at KIG, the car dealership was born out of the desire of six Henriques brothers — Emmanuel, Rudolph (Dossie), Vernon, Horace, Owen Karl (0K) and Fabian — to provide civil engineering services in Kingston around the time of the massive 1907 Kingston earthquake.

The sibling partnership, from its Pechon Street location downtown Kingston, boasted engineering and architectural services, but quickly added Ford car dealership to its roster.

KIG had a close relationship with Ford Motor Company, with Henry Ford II, grandson of the founder visting the island on numerous occasions in the early days.

After a devastating fire that destroyed KIG’s Church Street showroom in 1948 the company found worthwhile assistance from its US partner.

That year, Henry Ford II wrote a personal letter to OK Henriques bemoaning the recent destruction by fire of the KIG premises and quoted a letter written by his grandfather 15 years earlier confirming the date of the KIG’s establishment.

‘I have learned that this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of your appointment as a Ford dealer in Kingston. I wish to offer my congratulations.’ The calculation is not difficult: 1948 -1933 – 1908. That sets the date of the establishment as the oldest Ford dealer in the world.

Since its establishment in 1907 the Ford dealership moved on to represent vehicles from both sides of the Atlantic and the Far East, through its progeny and affiliate companies — John Crook, Cars and Commercials and Sterling Motors — even having the prestigious BMW among its brands.

KIG was appointed the Daihatsu dealer in 1982 until Toyota, the Daihatsu owner, decided to establish their own distribution in Jamaica in 2004. And, for close to 20 years, the company has been the local representative for Subaru.

The iconic Land Rover brand was another marketed by KIG for over 50 years until last year when the Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart-owned ATL Automotive acquired the dealership.

“Land Rover, we believe, is an excellent brand, it was a blow to us when we lost that dealership,” Major Blake shared.

“We had what we thought were good plans, going forward,” said Blake. “The offer that ATL made was excellent and we could not match that from a resource point of view. Land Rover made a prudent business decision in awarding ATL the dealership.”

The loss of Land Rover, however, has not signalled the death of KIG. “We have, in Ford and Subaru, two brands with enormous potential in the market,” said Major Blake.

And recently KIG has added Yamaha motorbikes, widening its customer options.

But KIG’s operational concern was not limited to switching brands around to complement its Ford marque. In fact the company flirted with closure as car sales dipped dangerously during the early to mid 2000s.

Blake recalled that a radical change in approach to car sales and tough decisions such as giving up the BMW dealership actually kept the company from going belly up.

“We had to restructure to become more cost-efficient,” Blake said of KIG’s efforts to stay afloat.

“The first was to orient our thinking to an outside-in approach where we allow the dictates of our customers to decide how we do business. We had to recognise customer needs and wants and then restructure the company to fit that mode of operation.”

According to Blake, managing the BMW franchise with lukewarm customer uptake at the time was a significant part of the problems at KIG.

“They don’t like when you co-locate their brand with any other,” he shared.

Blake said BMW insisted that KIG expend US$4.5 million in constructing a new facility that would consist purely of fittings to their specification.

“When we worked out the numbers it did not make common sense. It was not commensurate with the returns,” he contended. “We were willing to build something for US$2.5 million (but) they were not satisfied with that.

“That is the reason we terminated the BMW dealership,” Blake said.

But that parting of ways with premier BMW brand proved a financial blessing for KIG, according to Blake.

“Immediately after that we became profitable,” he said. “The other brands had more flexibility and we were able to focus on them. Up to the point we had BMW we were barely profitable.”

KIG has changed ownership since the days of the Model T, first Henriques Bros Limited was bought by Wray&Nephew Group. Then Wray&Nephew was acquired by Lascelles which in turn was bought out by current owners, the Trinidad-based CL Financial (Angostura).

But throughout changes, the Ford/KIG bond has remained secure — for over 100 years.