History of B&L

     B&L all began with Frank J. Brown Jr., my father, traveling from Bristol, VA at the age of 22.  His first job here locally was with Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company since his football coach in Bristol told him that if he played for the Apprentice School team they would pay him.  So Dad left the mountains and headed for the coast, back then it took him thirteen hours as he arrived in Newport News on August 5, 1934.  I am sure at this time he was unclear what the trip, and future would hold for him but as a hard working man of the times he still made the journey.  Frank was the only boy of eight kids in his family and he had to make it for himself.

     Once in the Newport News, Frank began working in the X31 department for electrical trade.  After four years of hard work and dedication he became a young supervisor at the age of 26 and was also the Captain of the football team.  Not bad for a country boy who grew up laying concrete with his fathers business, Brown Brothers Concrete Company, at a very young age.  Frank always had ambitions for a business of his own, so the day came where he bought two lots for about $500.00 dollars and built a 50x100 building where he could begin his legacy.

     His first business was called Mercury Armature Company, where Frank would let apprentice guys work on “piece work” winding armatures and receiving pay for what they could turn out.  Frank also had limited rights to VMC who sold wire, varnish, ovens, etc solely to anyone who had the franchise (which was limited).  Just to give you an idea for the armature business back then, it took thirteen major operations for one armature to be produced.  The day came when Frank bought a 1953 Ford Panel Delivery Truck and began selling, and delivering armatures from within town to North Carolina.  This delivery process grew to fixing generators on tractors, cars, trucks, etc.  One day a local business man named Whity Green asked Frank if he would be willing to supply Auto Parts Stores with generators, armatures, and starters, and Frank of course said yes.  So he started hiring employees and rebuilding units from junkyards.  As the business started growing Frank let one of the Apprentice boys start running the business during the day while Frank continued to work day shifts at the Shipyard and night for himself.  At this time the name was changed to B&L Generator Service, where B was for Brown and L was for Lafferty.  After a few years Frank bought out Lafferty’s portion of the shop and Lafferty moved to Vinton, VA to start his own business called P.G.S. “Pikes Generator Service”.

     Frank at this time started to expand his business more by Bonding Brake Shoes, and once again the name was changed to B&L Generator and Brake Shoe Service.  Frank never changed the name B&L since it was already pretty well known.  At this time the wholesale side of the business was doing great and B&L was stocking up to 25 stores.  A short time later I “Robert R. Brown, son” started working fulltime after school at age 17 since up to this point in time I had been working folding boxes and such since the age of 12.  I’ll never forget that year, it was 1962.  I began working on Ford starters with my dad and he started teaching me everything he could about winding armatures, etc.  He also had a two bay garage for electrical installations.  Back then you did everything you could and no job was the same job all the time.  One day you would be building starters, next generators, next boxing brake shoes, next loading trucks, unloading the cores, and so on and so forth.  After some time I started working on some cars out in the bays or whatever else I could do to help out.  When the alternators first started making their appearance on the scene in the early sixties, I started working on the Chryslers, Fords, and the Delco’s. Back then the light was on you pulled the alternator and replaced the Trio and reinstalled it and made easy money off of a .25 cent part.  Now look at the way the business has changed.

     On April 4, 1964, I was drafted in the Army and served with the 25^th Division 2^nd/27^th Infantry.  At this time my Father continued to run the business with the stress of me at war and wondering everyday if I would return.  Luckily I returned home on January 14, 1967 battled and beaten from the war and what I had seen, but went right back to work in the family business.  A short time later I met my beautiful wife Debbie and started a life along with working for my father to continue the business.  On February 9, 1973 I had my first daughter Melanie, and at that time life was wonderful.  As the years continued to change the business into more car repairs and less wholesale sales, the family Auto Part stores were falling by the wayside do to foreign competition.  On February 20, 1976 I had my son Bradley and hoped that one day he would be there to work with me, like I had with my father.

     In 1978 my father sold me the business and these were the happiest years of my life, I was a business owner, happily married, and I was watching my kids grow up.  Business was ever changing and at this time we changed the name again to B&L Alternator and Automotive, and built onto the current building with an 8 bay addition.  We continued to grow into more of a full service auto repair facility and as time passed the rebuilding/wholesaling/brake shoe side of the business just faded away with all the small stores selling out or going under due to the overwhelming competition from the big name stores such as Advance, Autozone, etc.  Everyone was looking for a cheap price and a lifetime warranty which is a marketing genius in itself.  Just how many units are replaced in a lifetime anyway, chances are your going to sell your vehicle, lose your receipt, other failures and such before the warranty will ever be used.  To add to this competition the foreign market was really taking off with leaps and bounds which in turn set forth to change the business further than ever before.  Units were harder to fix and parts were much more expensive than ever before.  As we continued to evolve the full service repair side of the business the rebuild shop services became more specialized.  We worked on more marine, and industrial units than ever before along with servicing the ever growing needs of the full service side of the business.  We also started Inspecting cars, doing complete repairs such as motor jobs etc.  The need to evolve in this business has been a very large part of staying alive. 

     My son Brad has been working with me, running the business for over 8 years now and we are constantly talking about the ever changing needs of this occupation.  All of the rebuilders in my area are gone except maybe one, and the difficulty of getting parts and repairing items gets harder all the time.  We see more heavy equipment items than ever before and also sell units that are remanufactured or new.  The time and cost in repairing most units these days is greater than just stocking the whole unit for sale.  The large part of our business now is in our new state of the art shop we built for full service auto repairs.  This 10+ bay shop is top notch and allows us to continue to grow and further our legacy in this market which is forever changing.  We have been open in our new building going on 7 years now and man what a ride it has been!  I look back and wonder where time has gone and how everything came to light but I guess that’s the legacy that my son will have to continue long after I am gone.  Life is so rewarding but you have to be willing to stand up and continue to always fight to the end.

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