HCS opened its 1000m 2 sales showroom just before the first Covid lockdown, but now it’ s thriving
‘ There was a need for that, so we said,“ Let’ s open a company”. And so that’ s what we did. That was 32 years ago. Then I set up HCS exactly 11 years ago, because I wanted to do it my way and not be influenced by business partners.’
Julian’ s interest in engines, cars and pre-War cars started even earlier than that.‘ My hobby, all my life has been engines and so I also designed improvements into the engines. I’ ve been working on pre-War cars since 1990. I started working for a firm specialising in pre-War Rileys in England. I ran the racing department there for four years before coming over to Belgium to look after a private collection of pre-War cars belonging to two Dutchmen. I came over in 1994 to look after their cars and, within just a few months, we realised that there was a need for people to look after predominantly the older cars.
‘ That was basically the workshop that I’ ve got here, which is a 1000m 2 workshop and machine shop. Then, just before Covid, I opened up a 1000m 2 showroom. I sent out the invitations two days before Covid shut everybody down. That wasn’ t very well timed … but we managed. We kept our heads above water, even with a dead showroom around our neck. We managed to sell some cars through Covid and, basically, it’ s gone from strength to strength from there onwards. We’ re looking for bigger premises because we need more room.’
46 The Engine Rebuilder Issue 04