History of the Automotive Retailers Association

By Ron Baldwin

Part One - The Early Years - The 1950's
In the early 1950's, after many years of struggling to keep their businesses profitable, a group of disgruntled B.C. service station/garage operators met in Vancouver. They sought to identify and deal with problems common to each other. For some, the main concern was their lack of control over profit margins associated with gasoline prices. Some expressed dissatisfaction with closing time by-laws and the increased taxation attracted by owning and operating motor vehicles. Others wanted to do something about what they perceived to be harsh treatment by the supplying oil companies, unfair practices by some wholesale parts companies, the direction of body repairs by some insurance firms and unfriendly relations with the various levels of government. The operators decided that it was time to put aside their petty differences and start working together to create an organization "Strong enough to achieve better business conditions within the industry and to create a code of fair trade conduct in dealing with the motoring public."

At a large meeting of concerned station operators held in Vancouver in November 1950, support was given to a motion to approach city council with a draft proposal for a change in the current by-law which would permit gasoline sales from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, with a provision for after hours and 24-hour service for a limited number of stations. Although city council was sympathetic, it deferred any action until the following year. However, the operators now realized that their voices could be heard and that solutions were possible, but only if the station men were able to reach a united understanding of their pressing problems.

By early 1951, many concerned operators in Greater Vancouver began to hold a series of meeting to discuss ways and means of starting a new organization. In May of that year, action was finally taken, out of which the Automotive Retailers Association of B.C. was formed. Within a few weeks, the majority of service stations in Vancouver and surrounding areas signed up as members.

Only three years after the inception of the ARA, the Association's Annual Convention of 1954 was a full house!

Members of the Central Committee met a number of times during the summer and a proposed constitution was drafted and a decision was made to hold an organizational meeting in October to elect a Board of Directors. This meeting took place at Vancouver’s Devonshire Hotel on October 24, 1951 and elected their first president, Colin Virteau, and Vice President - Tom Hammond. Now that the Greater Vancouver area was organized the next order of business for the directors was to make every effort to bring businesses from all over British Columbia into the Automotive Retailers Association.

At a meeting of the Central Council at the end of October 1951, newly elected President Colin Virteau told his Directors it was imperative that the ARA finds suitable office space in a Vancouver location as soon as possible. Secretary-Manager Lloyd Kinneard promptly made a deal with the Retail Merchants Association to rent temporary quarters in the RMA’s building at 1557 West Broadway. The staff, consisting of Lloyd and one assistant then moved in, working with a bare minimum of office equipment. This would serve as home for the Association for the next three years.

Establishing a constitution was now a priority and a committee was appointed to make recommendations and put a together a draft proposal to be submitted to the council. Early in 1952 the completed document was adopted and legal counsel soon secured a Charter for the new garage and service station organization to operate as an independent Trade Association.

Within a short time, twenty regional zones were set up covering the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley. Each of these zones elected a chairman, a Vice chairman, and a Secretary. With the structure of the organization now in place, the Central Council realized that it was essential to establish enough benefits and services to ensure that the members would feel it worthwhile to belong. By the end of 1952, the total membership had grown to six hundred automotive firms.

The Directors were well aware that members were demanding that a Group Insurance Plan should be introduced. A committee was empowered to look into all phases of this matter. Following their studies and research, a negotiated contract was entered into with Crown Life Insurance Company, which provided members, employees and dependents with protection they could not obtain on their own. The Group Plan was offered at a cost which was less than any other such plan in Canada. It was self-administered and operated by the ARA and members were covered with life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, weekly income, surgical medical X-Ray and diagnostic benefits. During the months following implementation, two hundred and fifty firms had signed up for coverage. Members expressed their thanks for the way in which the plan functioned and for the promptness of settlement of claims.

As president Virteau proudly announced in the first annual report of the ARA at the end of 1952, the accomplishments of the previous months had been incredible. However, more effort was needed to reach out to cover more geographical areas and to attract and represent trades other than service stations and garages. This objective would be met successfully during 1953. Fourteen new zones were soon in place: Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo, Courtenay, Kamloops, Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton, South Okanagan, Nelson, Trail, Cranbrook, Prince George and Powell River. The executives in the zones kept active with over one hundred and fifty local meetings held during the year. By the end of 1953, membership had expanded to nearly one thousand firms in B.C.

But, with these successes came problems in the industry. The most severe, and one which tested the finances and resources of the ARA took place when the fledgling Association was called upon to defend charges laid against twenty-eight member firms by the Combines Department of the Restrictive Trade Practices Commission under the Federal Competition Act which alleged that these firms had violated provisions of the Act regarding gasoline retailing in B.C. Named in the charges were not only service station operators, but also some dealerships. Combines investigators began an extensive examination of the industry, the results of which were summarized in its report to the Minister of Justice in Ottawa.

The ARA was obligated to engage the expertise of barristers and solicitors to defend the charges. To meet the heavy legal expense, the Association had to look for funding in the form of volunteered contributions from members. A legal defense fund was established to finance the ongoing lawsuit, which was not settled until some five years later when an appeal in front of the Supreme Court of Canada resulted in a ruling that found the original conviction by the Combines Department to be without merit. This case was so time-consuming for Kinneard and is staff that much of their energies were spent on it rather than on other potentially productive and beneficial work for the membership. However, when the case against those 28 members was finally dismissed in 1956, no one had any regrets.

After guiding the Automotive Retailers Association through its first two years, President Colin Virteau stepped aside. His successor was Tom Hammond, who took over in 1954.Tom had begun his automotive career in 1913, and served in the Canadian army in World War One. Moving from the prairies to the west coast, he started Central Garage in the 1100 block of Seymour Street in downtown Vancouver in 1929. Ten years later, he relocated the business to Seymour Street at Pacific Street, renaming it Hammond’s Garage. It became a Shell Oil outlet in 1949.

Tom’s Vice President was Cliff Horwood, from Victoria, and his executive committee included Frank Barry, Al Higgins, Syd Morrey, and Lawson Oates from Greater Vancouver; Mac McGowan from the Fraser Valley; Gerry Lipsett from the Okanagan; Monty Brothers from the Kootenays and Dick Seale from Vancouver Island.

Needing more space for the ARA office, Secretary-Manager Lloyd Kinneard was able to secure the necessary accommodations by moving to the new Dominion Life building at 1687 West Broadway. Included was a spacious boardroom, a must for holding industry meetings. New office equipment was purchased and the staff now consisted of Kinneard, two field representatives and three young ladies to handle the increasing workload. Two new zones were established for the Cariboo Region, in Quesnel and in Williams Lake.

A close relationship between the Association and the insurance adjusters of British Columbia evolved, resulting in the development of a standard estimating worksheet for collision repairs. Consequently, in late 1954 a group of body shop owners decided to apply for membership in the ARA, with the intention of working alongside their garage and service station counterparts on industry issues. The ARA executive approved the idea, and a special Division was formed for the auto metal trade. This was the first of many such special Divisions that would be established in later years. The initial Chairman of the new Division was veteran downtown Vancouver body shop owner, Bob Bodie. His Vice Chairman was Bill Grant, the body shop manager at Dueck on Broadway.

The first order of business for these gentlemen was to address three major problems. These were front-end alignments; service station discounts and proposed discounts for insurance companies. It is interesting to note that the retail labour rate in B.C. at this time was $1.60 per hour! With the added strength of the new Body Shop Division, total membership in the ARA increased to over one thousand firms by the end of 1954.

Along with the continuing investigation by the Federal Combines Department involving 28 individuals who were singled out on charges of conspiring to fix prices, the service station operators throughout B.C. were upset over the provincial government’s failure to enforce regulations covering the sale of tax-free, coloured gasoline by oil company bulk agents to users of off-road vehicles such as farm tractors. The evasion of these regulations resulted in direct losses of revenue to the government as well as to service stations.

Another problem facing service station operators concerned the pressure being exerted on them to get involved with "Discount Clubs," trading stamps, giveaways and other gimmicks and games, all of which were designed to entice motorists to purchase certain brands of fuel. In all parts of B.C., the major oil companies were opening many new stations in the mid-1950’s. These companies included Imperial Oil, British American Oil, Home Oil, Texaco, Shell, Chevron, Union and Royalite. The average price for a gallon of gas at this time was 38 cents.

Tom Hammond served as ARA’s President for only one year (1954), although he did return to the same position in 1957. Succeeding Hammond was Victoria’s Cliff Horwood, who remained at the helm for two years, 1955 and 1956. His two Vice Presidents were Al McGowan, from Surrey, and Frank Barry, from Vancouver. Cliff and his brother Gordon started in the automotive business in 1936 under the name Horwood Brothers. Cliff had been a hard-working supporter of the ARA and developed a strong retailers group in the Victoria zone, and had been elected as a Director of the Association in 1952. Some of the other key ARA zone officers in Victoria at this time were Jack Hawks, Alf Morgan, Austy Craven, Roy Atkinson, Tom Leason, Jack Hawthorne and Stan Collier. Other active zones on the Island were in Nanaimo, Duncan and Courtenay.

On a sad note, in August 1956, ARA field representative Len Hobbs passed away suddenly after suffering a heart attack. Hobbs had worked very hard at getting the Body Shop Division created. Reg Thomas, the other field man carried on by himself until Kinneard was able to find a replacement for Hobbs.

After serving as Chairman of the Body Shop Division for one year, Bob Bodie turned the position over to John Dawson, the body shop manager of Begg Motor Company. The executive of the Division now consisted of Bill Crodie (Crodie and Mitchell), Donn Dean (Donn Dean Collision Repairs), Morley Sherwood (Auto Metal and Radiator Works), Ralph Kelly (Plimley Automobile Company), Colin Cruickshank (Johnston Motor Company) and Ed Gow (Roger Motors, West Van). Within a few months, two additional executive members were added – Charles Draper (Bowell McLean Motors) and Harold Craven (Clarke Simpkins Ltd.). Body shop owners were finding that, as an established group they were now able to solve many trade problems, all of which resulted in improved conditions within the auto metal industry.

Body Shop Division groups were also organized in New Westminster, Abbotsford and Victoria. Many of the new car dealers in B.C. who operated their own body shops showed their support for the aims and objectives of the independent shop owners by taking out memberships in the Automotive Retailers Association. As Donn Dean (who became Chairman of the Division in 1957) stated, "This cooperation shows what can be accomplished when motor dealers and independents work together so solve common problems."

To Be Continued

Related Information:

• An Introduction to the ARA
• Accomplishments of the ARA
• How to Join the ARA