OUR STORY

For over 40 years, Allmakes 4×4 has been supplying high quality Land Rover parts and accessories to parts businesses, workshops, Government Organisations, Charities and NGO’s across the world.

Originally known as Allmakes, a name relating to the vision of the company’s founding Director, Peter Hands, the company now known as Allmakes 4x4 has grown into one of the most recognised suppliers for Land Rover parts in existence.

Milton Park 39

The company was started in 1977 in a room no bigger than a Land Rover 90 in the Directors house in Oxford. Originally the company focussed on supplying parts for Land Rovers, Trucks and Buses, even supplying parts at one stage to Routemaster. However it was the Export Business that really took off and within months, a larger office had been secured on Milton Trading Estate in a town just south of Oxford called Abingdon. This is the place where Allmakes 4x4 still resides to this day, although the estate is now simply known as Milton Park.

Two partner directors were also appointed at this stage, all of whom shared a common grounding in the parts business and who arrived from working at Unipart. The Directors and some key personnel continued to build the business up, and it wasn’t long before larger premises were required.

In 1982, Allmakes moved to another site in Abingdon and a number of additional personnel were recruited, many of whom are still with us, but with business growing at an unprecedented rate, and with new markets emerging in the UK and abroad, it wasn’t long before the company had to move again.

In 1987, Allmakes moved back to Milton Park and continued to grow. One highlight was winning the Queens Award for Export in 1991. This was an incredible achievement for a company still so young, but they proved worthy of this recognition, managing to grow even during the recession of the early 90’s.

By the mid 90’s. Allmakes had developed a booming UK business to compliment their dominant export business. The business bought into an accessory manufacturing business called Gainsborough Accessories and this meant that the company could now manufacture a quality range of accessories for themselves and undercut Land Rover to meet the demands of their customers

Later on in the 90’s, the company extended its local reach and introduced a fleet of delivery vans. This proved very successful, but as the courier companies serving Allmakes improved, so the reliance on personal delivery faded. Allmakes still operates deliveries to some areas of the UK, but not on the scale that they used to.

The Late 90’s saw Allmakes change its name to Allmakes 4x4 as by this time they were firmly established as a key Land Rover parts supplier. With this came the decision to move into other markets too, and for a number of years, Allmakes offered parts for Chrysler Jeep vehicles, a side of the business that would later be sold off to another company.

Also, around this time, Allmakes 4x4 got involved with creating the first aftermarket Diagnostics machine. This would be the beginning of a long relationship with technical and business systems. The diagnostics side of the business was eventually moved away to an independent company.

Allmakes 4x4 continued to gather strength and when Richard Howe became Director of the company, the business started to get involved with a number of new markets and acquisitions. It was Richard who said “if you’re serious about selling parts, then you should run your own workshops”. Allmakes 4x4 acquired a couple of workshops around the country, running independently as workshops but also as test stations for Allmakes products. This certainly helped to give Allmakes 4x4 their reputation for quality.

Quite quickly, quality itself became the Allmakes 4x4 message. They had implemented a number of quality approval processes and could quickly identify flaws in parts that were up for consideration. Certainly Allmakes 4x4 became synonymous amongst the Land Rover world as the “quality” supplier. Such was the Allmakes 4x4 commitment to quality, that the company became the first and only company to hold an ISO9001:2000 accreditation specifically for “Storage, supply and delivery of genuine, original and replacement spare parts and accessories for vehicles manufactured by Land Rover”

Fast forward to 2007 and the rumblings of a new brand were being heard in the Land Rover market. Allmakes 4x4 released Terrafirma, a performance range of expedition grade equipment designed to suit style, performance and budget requirements of the Land Rover market. The Serious 4x4 Accessories brand. Terrafirma has since become a success story of its own, and recently featured on the front cover of Land Rover Owner International magazine as a catalogue.

Allmakes 4x4 in 2008 became the first company to offer full online ordering via the Allmakes 4x4 Trade Portal, facilitated by a change of management system and at considerable investment. Online sales now account for 40% of the total Allmakes 4x4 turnover.

Later on a desktop version of the Trade Portal called Allmakes Shadow was launched to effectively make Allmakes 4x4 open and ready for business the moment people switch their computers on. Tap in a part number, it tells you what variations of that part number Allmakes 4x4 has, what brands they are, how much they are, and whether they are in stock. Click order, and the part get’s processed by the Allmakes 4x4 team and is sent out for despatch. Simple but liberating.

Allmakes 4x4 have exhibited at a number of shows around the world over their 30 years of trading. The major one of these is Automecanika. Allmakes 4x4 are regulars at these shows so please look out for them if you are going.

There is so much more to say about Allmakes 4x4. We hope you can find what you are looking for in this site. If you cannot then please contact us.