The history of a Lombard St landmark
Editorial
Stabroek News
November 15, 2003
Of all the household names in Guyana there are few more familiar than Auto Supplies which has been in business for over 55 years, seeing out the prosperous post-war fifties and sixties, the disastrous state-controlled seventies and early eighties and the promising nineties.
But it will not, at least in its present form, see out the uncertain `noughties' following the fire on Thursday night.
Auto Supplies had done what every business had to do to survive. It adapted.
It was back in the late 1940's that Andrew James came to Georgetown. He was the son of Henry James who owned the Empire pawnbroker shop in New Amsterdam along with a bakery. Henry had ambitions that his son would become a doctor and it was initially decided that he would go to England to study medicine. His tuition would be paid for by an uncle who had a practice in Harley Street. But Andrew who had attended Queen's College decided that he wanted a life in commerce and established his own pawnbrokery at the corner of Lombard and Hadfield streets where Royal Castle was. The name of the company was the British Guiana Pawnbroking and Trading Co Ltd. and to this day that is the registered name for the company better known as Auto Supplies. Business was good in part because the old telephone exchange was not far away and Andrew decided to try bringing in other items from the then manufacturing powerhouse of England. Among the items were Matchless and Velocet motorcycles, Phillips bicycles and Avon tyres. These proved successful and he expanded east along Hadfield St and along Lombard buying up property to make room. He created the Pye Centre for Pye radios which actually worked on tubes and took up as much space as a sideboard. On buying trips to Europe he brought back Siemens and Grundig stereo equipment and NSU motorcycles along with Victoria mopeds. Auto Supplies also brought in outboard engines which would eventually become manufactured under the brand name Johnson. Andrew was himself a motorcycle enthusiast and helped start the Matchless Motorcyle Club which would hold impromptu races on the seawall. This was also a good way to get publicity for the big bikes.
His son Brian James who is now the company's managing director lived above the pawnbrokers and when he was old enough would help assemble cycles and motorbikes. And the lines kept on growing. A range of Necchi sewing machines inspired one of the first neon signs in Guyana and the creation of the Necchi building. Goods such as fridges and washing machines and Electrolux vacuums - sold door to door- all took up room and the company was a hive of activity in its various departments. It had by the early sixties become a department store- type operation and would expand into the first Toyota cars. More diversification came with the establishment of the record bar and a collaboration with Vivien Lee where records were cut for local artistes including Harry Whitaker and the Syncopaters and Lord Canary under the label Ace Records.
But as Guyana entered the seventies, foreign exchange dried up as the state took control of the factors of production.
Auto Supplies was fortunate that it had orders to last for at least two years but after that it was starved of the lines which had made it so popular. Brian and most of the family left for Canada where they built a successful real estate and construction business while Auto Supplies went into effective hibernation selling some locally produced items with limited success.
With the advent of President Desmond Hoyte's Economic Recovery Pro-gramme in the early nineties, the family saw signs of a complete reversal of the state- controlled system.
So Brian eventually returned in November 1992 but to a much changed business environment. Auto Supplies sought out niche products while emphasising its decades-old commitment to after sales service and spares. Recent lines included the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Peake air conditioners, Bridgestone tyres and Hawkins pressure cookers, part of Auto Supplies for thirty years. Brian also went into a joint partnership to create the Royal Castle fast food restaurant.
Both have now been destroyed.