BRIAN SMEDLEY CELEBRATES FIFTY YEARS IN BUSINESS

Congratulations to Brian Smedley, company founder and Director of Linings & Hoses, in celebrating 50 years in business this November. Brian’s entrepreneurial skills and vision were central to establishing L&H Brakes & Hoses in Stoke-on-Trent in 1968. With acquaintances in the motor trade, he went on to open several companies in Cheshire and Derbyshire during the 70s and 80s. These businesses were all driven by his contagious enthusiasm for the motor trade. 

The companies were eventually amalgamated into Linings & Hoses and in 2006, following a company demerger, Brian continued to work with the new Linings & Hoses company with depots in Congleton, Stoke and Stafford. 

The Linings & Hoses business is now run by Brian’s two sons Stuart and Neil, and fellow Director Steven Kempa. Brian is currently training his grandson, Matthew, to follow in his footsteps in the family business. His granddaughters, Hollie and Nina, also spend time working with him. 

Brian has always considered his staff his most important asset providing them with the opportunity to succeed and develop within the business. There are many long serving members of staff at Linings & Hoses, reflecting his loyalty and support to his staff, and them to him. 

Brian will be 85 on the 1st of November and he continues to work a few days each week. He left school at 15 and started work at Ferodo in Chapel-en-le-Frith so November will see him entering his 70th year in the motor trade, a fantastic achievement by anyone’s standards. His early workdays gave him a good understanding of the motor trade. However, Brian’s career at Ferodo was interrupted due to National Service in the RAF. In the mid-fifties he moved South and worked for Rival Lamps, before moving on to work for Small & Parkes as Sales Manager for London and the South East selling Don Brake Linings. Brian enjoyed his time in London until the mid-60s when he relocated to his native North-West continuing to work for Small & Parkes until 1968. In 1968 Brian established L&H Brakes & Hoses in Stoke-on-Trent. This was, in his own words, “the best decision I ever made”. 

Picture caption: L- R Stuart Smedley, Steven Kempa, Brian Smedley and Neil Smedley