
“There’s a lot of history
in the Building”
When you walk through the
doors you will be glad to know that you will get good value for your money
and you will be greeted with knowledgeable staff with a vast amount of
experience.
BC Auto Wrecking was
established in Victoria BC on August 13th 1969 by Glen and
Valerie King. The King’s ran a well utilized business until 1980 when John
Biggs purchased the company and turned it into his family business. Many of
the auto wrecking pioneers would agree that this industry was initiated by 5
businesses in British Columbia, one of which belonged to the “Biggs” family.
Raymond Biggs the original
owner of Clark's Auto Parts opened one of Vancouver Islands first auto
wrecking yards in Victoria, BC. Raymond was quick to the punch and put his
son at the tender age of 14 to work after school. Ten years later in 1963
John and his father Raymond opened Victoria Auto Parts on Princess Street.
This transaction officially started John’s adult career in auto wrecking.
With the growth of
Victoria as a tourism city, the prospect of expanding or opening another
yard in the downtown core was virtually impossible, so the hunt was on the
find something in a neighbouring community away from the hustle of shopping
malls, hotels and tour companies.
It wasn’t until 1983 that
John purchased BC Auto Wrecking and started operating as a family business.
His wife Carole processed the statements and his daughter Carolyn started
stuffing envelopes at age 16 and by her 20th birthday was working
fulltime in the family business. Ten years after acquiring BC Auto Wrecking
a second store was opened in Nanaimo. As the economy shifted in the early
1990’s the family made a unilateral decision to sell the original location
and expand Nanaimo’s store. It was at this point that Carolyn moved to
Nanaimo with current counterman Steve Jahnke.
In 1997 the hunt for a new
“experienced counterman” was on and we met Bryan Thomas. Bryan worked within
the business for a short while before having to move back to Calgary,
Alberta.
As John approached his 60th
Birthday he decided he wanted to retire. He knew the type of person he
wanted to see in the business it just was trying to find the right fit. It
was at this point that John knew Bryan was the person to approach.
BC Auto Wrecking entered
into a new millennium with new owners, with new ideas and the ability to
adapt to a rapidly changing industry. Today auto wrecking yards are widely
recognized as salvage, recycling, and dismantling yards. The old fashion
terms of junkyards, scrap heaps and bone yards are a thing of the past.
Technology and the acknowledgment of the importance of used parts have
significantly changed the image of auto wrecking. When accumulating facts
for this story, John laughed remembering back to the first Teletype
communication system on Vancouver Island. This “high tech” machine could
communicate with 6 local yards in “real time” and if you couldn’t type
everyone knew it as you seemed to wait forever for the person to finish
typing. Today the communication system has an international membership of
over 2500 recyclers and the capability of communicating instantly and
selling used auto parts to ICBC
(Insurance Corporation of British Columbia) and other yards
across Canada and the United States.
The business is in its 43rd
year and accumulatively we have over 67 years worth of hands on experience
to help serve you and your used auto parts needs.