Appointed by Ford
The Morpeth store had begun selling motor vehicles, and that year the Ford Motor Company signed the firm as a dealer. The relationship would stay exclusive for 86 years.
Two wheels.
Since 1890.
A steam plough man fixing bicycles in a Morpeth shed. One of the first Ford dealers in Britain. A century of family hands, an OBE at the Palace, and a return to two wheels. This is the business behind Iron Stable.
- 1890
- Founded in Morpeth
- 86
- Years a Ford-only house
- £172.3m
- Turnover at its height, 2015
- 524
- Staff across five marques
1890
Where it began
Septimus Jennings was born in Northumberland in 1854. The 1881 census lists him as a steam plough man; he repaired bicycles as a hobby in a garden shed on Old Lane, Morpeth. He had married Margaret Short in 1877, and seven children followed in twelve years.
In 1911, in his late fifties, he made the hobby his trade: that year’s census answers “Motor & Cycle Engineer”. He bought a shop on Bridge Street and started with a team of six, selling bicycles first and early motor cars soon after, and in 1912 registered S Jennings Ltd at Companies House. The company would carry his initial for more than a century.
“One of the first dealers in the country to be appointed by Ford.”
The Ford century
1917 to 1958Ford tractors
Two years into the partnership, Jennings became an appointed dealer for Ford tractors, an agricultural franchise it held for over seventy years.
The founder dies
Septimus died in Morpeth, aged 83. His son George, in the firm since 1908 and a motor mechanic by trade, led it on; George’s brother William worked the shop floor beside him.
A clerk called Gordon
Gordon Jennings started in the workshop as a clerk and came up through every department of the company. Nearly half a century later he would chair it.
George’s fifty years
George Jennings led the company until his death, fifty years after joining as a mechanic.
Out of Morpeth
1984 to 2004First move beyond the home town
Jennings bought the Yarm Road dealership in Stockton-on-Tees: its first premises outside Morpeth in nearly a century of trading.
The last Jennings chairman
Gordon Jennings was Chairman, with Alan Bentley as managing director. In the early nineties the family sold its interest, ending a century of Jennings hands on the wheel.
South Shields
The group purchased the South Shields dealership.
Gateshead
The Gateshead dealership followed a year later; a Transit Centre was added to the site in 2015.
Middlesbrough
After a year of building work, the new dealership opened on Cargo Fleet Lane, Teesside.
The exclusivity ends
After 86 years of Ford only, Jennings opened its first non-Ford franchise: Mazda, at Washington. The same era brought Arriva’s Ford dealership in Sunderland into the group.
SEAT and Subaru
Middlesbrough added SEAT, Subaru and a Ford commercial site.
The Khan years
2005 to 2017Management buyout
Nas Khan took over as managing director after a management buyout. The group’s biggest era of growth began.
Leaving Morpeth
Vertu paid £2.6 million for the Morpeth Ford dealership. After more than a hundred years, the company left its home town.
Kia at Washington
The Washington site switched from Mazda to Kia.
A Harley-Davidson dealership in Leeds
Leeds Harley-Davidson opened on Wellington Road Industrial Estate, built by Shahzad Ahmed and his business partner Sohail Khan, Nas Khan’s son.
Britain’s biggest Kia dealership
The new Kia dealership on Teesside was described at its opening as Britain’s biggest. Mitsubishi joined the group the same year.
Half a thousand strong
Turnover reached £145.8 million, then £172.3 million the year after. At its height the group employed 524 staff across five marques, from Tyneside to Teesside.
Back to two wheels
The group took over Leeds Harley-Davidson in a management buyout, bringing S Jennings Ltd back to its roots in two-wheeled transport, 125 years after the bicycle shed.
Gateshead Harley-Davidson
A second Harley-Davidson dealership opened, in Gateshead.
The OBE
In March, Nas Khan was made OBE by the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace, honoured for his charity work and his contribution to the economy. After the 2010 Pakistan floods, his Emaan Foundation set out to raise £120,000 and built a village of sixty homes at Rahim Yar Khan. An honorary doctorate followed the same year.
Independent
2018 to todayThe Lookers sale, and a loss
In September, Lookers PLC took over the car dealerships in Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Washington, Gateshead and Stockton. The Harley-Davidson dealerships and the Stockton Kia stayed with the family as SK MotorCycles Ltd. Two months later Nas Khan died suddenly; one tribute called him “a true gent”.
The parts counter, online
Leeds Harley-Davidson, Iron City Motorcycles and Stockton Kia carry the name forward, and Iron Stable puts the dealer parts counter online: more than 105,000 genuine Harley-Davidson and aftermarket parts, authorised supply end to end, shipped across the UK and Europe.
What 136 years buys you
The businesses behind this shop sell and service machines every working day. That means authorised supply end to end, people who read part numbers for a living, and a trade that has survived every decade since the penny-farthing era by getting the details right. We began with two wheels in a Morpeth shed. We are still two wheels first.
Five custodians
Septimus Jennings
Founder
1854 to 1938
George Jennings
Second generation
Joined 1908, led until 1958
Gordon Jennings
Clerk to Chairman
Joined 1943, Chairman 1991
Alan Bentley
Managing Director
Early 1990s
Nas Khan OBE
Managing Director
2005 to 2018
On the record
None of this is brand mythology. The company history, from the Old Lane shed to the Lookers sale, is documented in the public record.