THE BEGINNING
A motor car, thought Henry Ford back in the 1900s, was something that people used in everyday work, in everyday living and for pleasure. In half a century, the motor car has changed the entire pattern of man's life in almost every corner of the world. The industry's fantastic growth has proven Henry Ford correct a thousand times over.
From the earliest days of the Ford Motor Company, Kingston Industrial Garage has served Jamaica as an exclusive Ford dealer-servicing organisation.
Back in 1908 six Jamaican-born brothers named Henriques decided to set up business in Kingston. The partnership boasted engineering, architectural and business knowhow, had its small headquarters located in Pechon Street near the railway and government wharves.
RAPID GROWTH. It was the year after the great earthquake of 1907 and the six brothers - Emmanuel, Rudolph, (Dossie), Vernon; Horace; Owen Karl (0. K.) and Fabian saw the possibilities in the city rebuilding. They pooled their experience, their great abilities and their slender resources for their humble beginning at Pechon Street. In 1916 the brothers moved to bigger premises at Darling Street and there the Henriques empire really started spreading.
1948, Henry Ford II wrote a personal letter to "0. K". In it, the late industrialist first condoled over the recent destruction by fire of the KIG premises, and then quoted from a letter written by his grandfather 15 years earlier: 'I have learned that this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of your appointment as a Ford Dealer in Kingston. I wish to ... offer my congratulations ..' The calculation is not difficult: 1948 -1933 - 1908. That sets the date of the establishment of the oldest Ford Dealer in the world.