A SMALL garage that became a Northern institution renowned throughout the haulage industry is celebrating its 50th anniversary with plans for a new high-profile site.

Londonderry Garage was founded on the old A1, near Northallerton, by Ron Exelby in 1958, but nearly didn’t make it past the first year following a fire.

It started life as a small commercial vehicles repair and sales operation.

Today, the firm, now run by Mr Exelby’s son, Michael, is a major enterprise with facilities across the North, including one of the busiest truck stops on the M6, near Carlisle, and a second business supplying local authorities and private companies with waste management vehicles.

But its fuel business could soon move from its original site with plans for an upgrade of the A1, meaning the junction that serves the garage would be removed.

Despite its history, Michael said he would not be nostalgic about the move.

He said: “We will have to relocate, we haven’t done any forecourt development here on the basis we will be at a new site at one of the new junctions when the road gets built.

“To my mind, this site needs updating. It is progress and I can’t wait to move because we will have a new site. I can see the new site being as busy as the one at Carlisle. It will cost over a million to develop, it but the returns are better.”

The business will not be leaving Londonderry completely, because the engineering side and sales of the business will remain at the present site.

It is not the first time that changes to the A1 have seen the business evolve.

When the A1 was to become dual carriageway in 1963 there was a concern that trucks would go straight past and not know the garage was there.

So Ron Exelby struck a deal with the Co-op Transport manager in Scotland to store diesel for the trucks in return for a handling charge.

It was so successful that when the present site, just across the road from the original, came up for sale in 1966, Mr Exelby was able to buy it for £4,000 – a huge amount at the time.

Like his son, he didn’t like debt and the purchase was funded through the business.

Michael recalled being nine years old at the time and driving a tractor around compacting the forecourt.

He couldn’t reach the pedals, so every now and again his dad had to come across and press the clutch down. Michael said: “That was the foundation for the business, keeping all the Scottish trucks coming through.

“Repairs and fuel worked well together.

“My father had built up his reputation with the Scottish haulage companies running up and down the old A1 for getting their vehicles repaired quickly and cheaply and carried on doing that until he got into the fuel retail sales.”

Another milestone came in 1968 when the company became involved in municipal and waste vehicle sales and rental.

It now supplies major organisations, including Newcastle City Council, Gateshead Borough Council and Chester-le-Street District Council, as well as hiring out more than 50 vehicles.

Michael said: “We have two main markets – we have the private contractor for waste recycling and the construction industry, but we also deal a lot with local authorities. I would say there is a 50/50 split between local authorities and the private sector.”

The company has been built on the “Londonderry Way” , which Michael described as being trusted, helping people, good service and not being expensive.

He added: “We have a lot of loyal customers who come back year by year.”

Another important factor was, as mentioned earlier, avoiding debt which sales manager Mark Taylor believed positioned the business well to ride out the credit crunch.

He said: “We have a lot of competition, but a lot of them have borrowed money and, if their customers don’t need the vehicles, they still have to pay the finance.

“We might have a £50,000 truck sitting in the yard for a period of time, but it is our £50,000.

“A lot of these companies have appeared and they will disappear just as quickly.”

Despite this, Londonderry is not resting on its laurels.

Mark said: “We are always trying to locate new markets and new customers.

“It is no good sitting back – you have to get out there and try and open up new markets.”

As well as Londonderry and Carlisle, the business has a further three service stations, including one on the M62 in Yorkshire and two on the A19.

Already successful, Michael believes the latter two would benefit further from the new Tyne Tunnel crossing.

He said: “With the second Tyne Tunnel, more traffic will go on the A19 as an alternative route to the A1.

“At the moment, most of our traffic at those services goes into Teesside or out of Teesside – there is not much through traffic.”