We’re turning 30 this year, which we felt was enough of a reason to take a look back on our history. We’d like to share with you some of our memorable moments, milestones and team members over the past 30 years; but before that, a whistle stop tour to how it all began!

1978 – David buys his first VW
David, VW Heritage Founder and Chairman, started his first business aged 19, delivering windsurfing boards. These were new on the scene at that time and couriers wouldn’t touch them due to their size and weight. David picked his first VW Bus up for £320 and spent every week driving the UK dropping windsurfing boards off to his customers, he would sleep in the cab overnight.

1979 – Hitching to Holland for a Type 2
Having met Nickie (VW Heritage Finance Director) at University, the pair decided they would hitch hike to Holland to buy a Type 2 (having heard they were cheapest there). They planned to use it as a removal van, offering a discounted service to other students who needed to move digs. However as soon as they got back a neighbour asked after it, so their £400 Van was sold for £600!  David got back on the train the next week to find another.

1984 – Converting to campers
With a young family to support (Kim was born in 1983) David dropped out of University and started converting Type 2 vans on his parents’ driveway to earn a crust. He would bring vans full of organic produce over for local business Infinity Foods before transforming them into motorhomes. These were then taken to the South Bank in London, where Nickie would advertise them. The vans were typically bought by Australian tourists.

1985 – Get ready for Ghias
David and Nickie worked sourcing Karmann Ghias for wealthy clients in the City, and sold one vehicle to artist Spencer Rowell. From their first premises in Steyning David would drive to Germany once a week to pick up genuine parts, for the purpose of restoring the cars ready for sale. Photo below: A family camper from around that time, the baby is Kim.

1986 – The parts business starts!
VW Heritage as a parts business began life 30 years ago as Karmann Classics. After getting a name for himself as the ‘Go to Guy’ for the cars, things quickly escalated to David supplying Genuine VW parts for these vehicles, then into parts for Beetle cabriolets (also built by Karmann). This lead to the inclusion of VW Beetle saloon models and Type 2 bus parts in his ‘catalogue’ too. The name Karmann Classics was created by Gary, who now works in our Ebay dept.

1988 – Mark Rickard joins the team
Mark has worked for VW Heritage twice; as he left to persue a ‘proper job’ for a while before returning in 1994, later to become Operations Director. Here he is (wearing the green hat) back in the day at VW Action 1990, with his brother Laurence. (He’s worked for us a few times too -he now works writing and acting in such programmes as Horrible Histories, Yonderland and was also co-wrote the film Bill about William Shakespeare).

1990 – Move to Hove
Moving from a tractor shed in Steyning (and various lock up garages full of stock) we moved to Northease Drive in Hove into a shop called ‘Union Air Cool’. This proved to be a giant leap at the time that would help things really develop! Below are some pictures from an early open day. It was also in 1990 that David took his first trip to Mexico to start forging a business relationship with Volkswagen in South America.

1995 – Name officially changed to VW Heritage Parts Centre
Now located at a premises in Portslade things were moving fast, so in keeping with the increase in business for non Karmann built VWs, while also prompted by an official letter, the name was to be changed. It was actually a member of VW UK staff at Milton Keynes who suggested the name VW Heritage, and it stuck; it was perfect for David’s vision of creating an official VW Dealership for genuine classic VW parts. Here are Nickie and Kim (David and Nickie’s Son) at a show in the mid ’90s.

1996 – Keeping it in the Family
Nigel Rickard (Mark and Laurence’s Dad) joined the company after finishing work as a BT engineer. He retired from VWH earlier this year after working with us for 20 years. Here he is hard at work – note the microfiche reader on his desk!

1999 – VW Heritage move to Henfield!
Another move for VW Heritage, and this time to Henfield in Sussex (about fifteen minutes drive, north of our current building in Shoreham). The office area can be seen here with the windows. Below was a good sized shop; to the side and behind it all was a large warehouse space, and a yard that would eventually be filled with shipping containers. Sales Manager Nick joined the ranks in 1999, also.

2003 – Street Style and Power launched at Volksworld Show
Having previously worked at Big Boys Toys and Volkspares in Essex, Barney (our now Managing Director) and Paul (Purchasing Director) wanted to develop their own VW tuning and styling company after having missed out on the opportunity to purchase BBT for themselves. Having been friends since school they were both avid VW enthusiasts who knew the industry well and they approached David, who helped them get things off the ground. Between them Street Style and Power was born. SSP parts would be available at VW Heritage, and VW Heritage parts would be available to buy from SSP in Thurrock. Here are a few old pics, coincidentally Barney’s photo is almost the same as David’s, minus the tea cup.

2007 – VW Heritage acquire Big Boys Toys
Finally for David (who had also missed out on buying BBT) Barney and Paul, acquired Big Boys Toys in 2007 and they set about using the brand to sell only classic watercooled VW parts. It was a new scene for the team to get into so the project was lead by watercooled enthusiasts Andy (now Marketing Manager) and Anna (Watercooled product manager) along with our then designer, James V.

2008 – We move to Burgess Hill.
With storage becoming a big issue, we had little choice but to move again. Out of the countryside and off to the other side of the A23 in Burgess Hill. When we initially moved in there was some debate about how we would ever use all of the space on offer, but we soon found a way.

2009 – First ever VW Heretics meeting
Wanting to expand upon simply selling VW parts and proving that “run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts” is more than just a motto for us, we opened our gates for the first time in 2009 with the creation of our VW Heretics events. Since then we have held them every Spring/Summer on the third Thursday of the month. Our biggest ever meet was this April with 250 car. You can see photos from all of our meets over on Flickr.

Also in 2009 – MEYLE UK becomes part of VW Heritage
A partnership with German car parts manufacturer MEYLE sees MEYLE UK open up shop from our warehouse and offices in Burgess Hill. A new mezzanine level was added to the warehouse, and additonal office space created to manage the ordering and distribution of predominantly steering, suspension and braking components held in stock.

2011 – VW Heritage turns 25 and becomes an official VW Classic Parts Partner
Possibly one of the biggest moments for us as independent VW parts suppliers, was being appointed by VW Classic Parts as their official partner in the UK. This partnership granted us and our customers exclusive access to warehouses full of obsolete stock. Until that point these parts had sat dormant since becoming obsolete at the main dealers years beforehand. What better 25th birthday present than that? How about a party at Brands Hatch to round it off.

2012 – Track Attack Event at Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch had already hosted our 25th Birthday, so in 2012 we joined with German car meet Prept for probably the biggest weekday VW meeting ever. With around 1500 cars in attendance, the pitlane was buzzing. The circuit was open to the public for track taster sessions and a host of race cars took part in demonstration laps showing off their capabilities too. We can only hope our 30th Anniversary event is just as much fun.

2014 -VW Heritage move to Shoreham
With our Burgess Hill warehouse and yard full to the brim and our offices slightly overcrowded with more staff than seats, we had to make another move. After a few years of searching, the site in Shoreham was found and work got underway early in the year. Our team were finally able to call it home from September, but not before we had an opening party.

2015 -Barney becomes Managing Director!
There was a change at the top as David took a side step to become Chairman, Jeff took up position as Sales Director and Barney accepted the role of MD, to steer us towards our next 30 years. We covered the story in a blog here.

2016 – VW Heritage turns 30. Celebrate with us at Brands Hatch
After 30 years, we’re still doing what David and Nickie set out to do three decades ago; supplying genuine parts for owners of classic VW vehicles. Our range has grown hugely; we now include non-genuine parts and the list of vehicles we offer parts for stretches up to almost new, with parts for T5s now on our shelves.

It’s fair to say the enthusiasm in our 80+ staff is stronger than ever. Younger enthusiasts join our ranks every year with passions for both air and watercooled models, and those more experienced and older are still loving the VW hobby that encouraged them into the VW Heritage family in the first place. Between us all we continue to push VW Heritage to be bigger and better than before.

Thanks for taking the time to read a bit more about our history, we hope you found it interesting. We would love you to join us on the 7th July at Brands Hatch to help us celebrate. If not, be sure to follow the action on the day with live pictures and videos across social media #VWHeritage30 #VWH30 and the Facebook event page can be found here.

Eva / Andy

The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage