FOWLERS PARTS Something for the weekend
F
owlers is celebrating 60 years of wholesale parts distribution. A true ‘One Stop Shop’ for motorcycle dealers: with its huge inventory of all-genuine parts and a high first-hit supply rate, plus clothing and accessories to suit every style of rider, dealers can save their valuable time, money and staff resources by having everything delivered together with one set of paperwork.
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It’s probably difficult for the motorcycle trade to recall a time when you didn’t contact Fowlers to find the price and availability of OE parts, but the story goes back further than living memory, to 1926, when Frank and Alice Maude Fowler opened a cycle shop in the Old Market district of Bristol. A year later they were joined by son Harry Fowler, who ended up as Chairman until 2006. By the 1950s Fowlers held most of the British motorcycle franchises, including Matchless, James, Francis Barnett and BSA. Then, in 1959, Fowlers Wholesale Division was created, when it was appointed as a BSA
main spares distributor. To say that this was the start of something big is a huge understatement. Throughout the 1960s Fowlers was awarded franchises from most of the major motorcycle manufacturers, and in 1970 it moved into new premises, doubling the amount of space available, and enabling the Honda and Yamaha spares wholesaling to be housed in the same building. Ten years further down the line, in 1982, Fowlers relocated to the prestigious Temple Meads site in central Bristol, where the retail and wholesale sides of the business were amalgamated under one roof. Inevitably,
FOWLERS PARTS