Lloyds Motor Spares

An entrepreneur’s story of friendship and family

Founded in 1946, Lloyds Motor Spares is one of the oldest motor spares businesses in the industry. With customer service being a top priority, LMS provided an efficient service to MOT and motor service garages, fleet and plant operators, utility companies and several emergency services including the police.

In the early 1970s, the business was acquired outright by one of its own home-grown team, Doug Holloway and it was incorporated as a Limited Company in 1982.

Goodman Jones were at our side for the duration of the business and became our trusted partners when it came to evaluating strategic decisions.

As well as family, Doug selected wisely from a close group of friends to join the company. His school friend Rod Hammond became a Director as did Peter Benson, Ken Tidiman, David Towle and in later years, John Hammond. For all intents and purposes ‘the boys’, as Doug referred to them, were treated as part of his extended family.

Driven by Doug’s ambitious expansion plans and supported by a loyal team, together they grew to having over 100 staff and nine retail sites across North West London. But for Doug it was never about numbers because in their own words,

When you walk into any Lloyds Motor Spares outlet, the combined years of experience of the parts advisors is likely to exceed 75 years. This coupled with an enthusiastic and hands-on management team make for a formidable workforce, which is the essence of Lloyds Motor Spares.

LMS and Goodman Jones

Peter Benson said,

Goodman Jones have been at our side for the duration of the business and became our trusted partners for accountancy, tax and also for evaluating strategic decisions. They helped us with remuneration and dividend strategy, tax strategy and even ensuring our in-house finance team were fully supported. They assisted with acquisitions and then when the time came, were key to our review of all the options for Doug to plan for retirement.

The next generation

As part of the strategy for succession, over a period of time, Peter Benson was appointed Managing Director and Doug’s remaining shares were gradually transferred to his daughter.

The importance of planning

Very sadly and suddenly, in early 2018 Doug became critically ill. His daughter, Lana takes over the story,

Last May was an extremely difficult and emotional time for so many of us. Losing my father so suddenly, is undoubtedly one of the hardest things I will ever go through, and because of our relationship I felt very strongly about seeing through his wishes for the hugely successful business he led with ‘the boys’ over the past 50 years.

In the aftermath of this it was decided, with Doug’s wishes in mind, that a sale of the business was to be the strategy to go forward with, and a suitable buyer was found.

New beginnings

Lana continues,

Alongside the business of Lloyds Motor Spares, we were always mindful of the need to invest for the future and when opportunities arose, we would seek to purchase good property assets. Over the years, this has led to a reasonable commercial property portfolio and from this D.H.Commercial Properties Limited has evolved. The plan now is to continue to grow this business taking all the advice, mentoring, support and guidance from my father, and am delighted to continue working alongside Peter Benson, who like my father, I always considered as family.

Cetin Suleyman concludes,

It was a pleasure to work with Doug and the team and I’m proud that Goodman Jones served the needs of his business and his family for some four decades. Doug was a role model in terms of helping all those he worked with realise their potential. He succeeded in getting the best from everyone simply by the way he treated them and business was always conducted with a smile and a warm-hearted joke.

Now, we are working closely with Lana and Peter and very much looking forward to the next evolution of the entrepreneurial spirit that Doug started and continues with them.