WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

All Electric Garages Group took its name from the first garage in England to be equipped with electric petrol pumps-hence the name. All Electric Garages was initially established as a petrol station in 1915 and later became a Morris, MG and Triumph franchised dealership. It wasn’t until 1967 that John Leek, Managing Director and Chairman took ownership of the premises.

John Leek began at the age of 17 as a mechanic for Evans and Kitchen and then changed course to become a salesman and consequently a sales manager. The First site he bought was the above at Harborne, which was then a much smaller plot, than the now sprawling Citroen, Suzuki and Kia show rooms. It was a shaky start for something that was to grow to be so successful. On the first day John Leek was faced with the daunting prospect of loosing Morris, MG and Triumph, an agreement that had been discussed with the previous owners. However all was resolved and gradually the business grew, as John states, “organically”. It perhaps could have grown ten times faster John jokes “if I had have taken more risks”.

There were various branches purchased after Harborne, for example Harborne Motor Company on Metchley Lane, Pershore Road, Bearwood, two in Sutton, Kings Heath, three in Halesowen and so the list goes on. Over the years All Electric has taken on many different guises and each branch is constantly changing and developing. Most recently and prominently a new showroom was added at Harborne in 1999 for the launch of the Rover 75 and then just last year was re-branded for Citroen. Interestingly at one point John Leek owned what is now the Safeway BP garage and quite ironically this was actually the first petrol station in the U.K to have self- service petrol pumps. Quite an accolade to Birmingham and indeed Harborne to be the innovators in this field. Mr Leek recalls that Miss United Kingdom performed the opening and dented his Mercedes-much to his dismay still today!

TO WHAT DOES ALLELECTRIC OWE IT'S SUCCESS?

John Leek was himself quite an innovator in that he was the first in the area to have multi franchise dealerships, the first of which being Daihatsu, Hyundai and Suzuki at Hall Green. John also believes that when the used car market took off nobody used to prepare used cars to any kind of standard and he comments, “our cars were so magnificent they were without question the best in the Midlands”. A Valeter would take over a day to just prepare a car! John suspects his success is due to the fact that All Electric Garages is a family business and he puts a great deal of importance upon staying in touch with the company and being involved in the every day running. Essentially John believes the key to good business is being surrounded by good people.