It’s our 40th Birthday this month!

1976… it is a long time ago now, but it was the year that GK Land Engineering Co Ltd formed and set-up business at Fair Oak Close on the Exeter Airport Business Park and 40 years later we are still there! The name may have changed along the way to Van Guard Accessories, but we are very proud to still be running as a family owned business!

A lot can happen in 40 years. Take the last couple of years for example…

  • We invested in a state-of-the-art laser cutter
  • Achieved our Made in Britain accreditation
  • Received the runner-up award in the Small Business of the Year category at the Exeter Business Awards
    • Not to worry as we won Business of the Year in 2016 and a few others :)
  • Launched two new products to market:
    • The ULTI Rack and Tool Store

We also improved our environmental credentials by installing solar panels, but we’ll stop there. If you would like to know everything we got up to in 2015 you can read it here.

The world has also seen a lot of developments in 40 years as well… internet, mobile phones, reality TV (unfortunately). The iconic Ford Focus Transit also turned 50!

We have a lot in the pipeline planned for our 40th birthday anniversary, mostly involving celebrations, which you can keep up to date with via our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels as well as our blog.  We will also be launching a competition very soon, so watch this space and keep visiting the website and our social channels for updates.

Barry Woodward (Managing Director), who has been with us since the early 1980s, when reflecting on this milestone commented:-

“40 years of stability in business is no mean feat & whilst it is certainly a time to reflect, look back & celebrate it is also a time to look forward, something that we all at Van Guard will never stop doing…  A very personal Thank You goes out to all staff & business partners."

We could never have remained in business for so long or achieved the success we have without our customers and amazing staff that make up the extended Van Guard family.

Thank you and here’s to another 40 years!

Time to get the celebrations started.