This week I had the opportunity of visiting our old stores, a short walk over the road which led to a trip back in time. As soon as you walk in you are transported back to a growing business suspended in time from a move that happened overnight. The desks still standing with old files, catalogues and photos stuck in a time warp from years ago. It would be easy to find yourself lost amongst forgotten items, old memories housed inside a building. When you walk around you can still feel the once buzzing atmosphere that would have filled the rooms, everyone would have been running around to fulfil the growing orders and demands of a business from it's humble beginnings.

When you enter the warehouse you can still a few see old parts sitting on the remaining shelves waiting to be transported over to the new build, standing still in time for now. The high roof create an openness in what would have been a packed warehouse full of a constantly expanding range of stock. The trade counter still stands at the front of the warehouse, with it's original signage and fittings left when L&S made their move. You can see how the counter looked in it's prime above always filled with new and exciting products. The counter was and still is the pride of the business, only growing in size when we moved to a bigger warehouse. When creating the original counter a lot of through went into what the customer would need every specification designed to make it a grand experience for the customer, even down to the exact height.

When you walk upstairs you are instantly transported to the real beginnings of the business. Old tea chests filled with vintage parts collected over the years, including Villiers, Lister Petter and more. The tea chests are still decorated with the original markings from their beginnings around the world. Stacked high they create rows of boxes housing parts that you could sift through all day. Lister Petter Piston Ring sets, gasket sets & Villiers filters are just a fraction of the parts that fill the boxes. This wide collection still stands as it was many years ago, you wouldn't be able to tell that each week more and more parts are identified and transported over to the new build to start their journey to a customer. The more you pull out the more you can find. As you can see above we also found an original Lister Petter sign like the one that would have appeared on the side of the Reliant Plant building. This is one of the many items you could find in our old building, a time capsule, that would lend a reminder to where the business began.

When leaving the old stores, and looking over to the new build you get a real sense of how much the business has grown, even in the span of two years. From Wyn & Alan setting out on a journey manufacturing parts and selling second hand spares & machines to a business that is constantly growing. Make sure to keep an eye out on the vintage engine section of our website, there are many more parts to come!