1997
1997 was the year it all began. Global was founded in Leeds as a vehicle maintenance centre with a vision of a business built with a ‘can do’ attitude attracting loyal customers who appreciated quality service and honesty. While the business is now much bigger and diversified, these simple values underpin the way we do business today.
December 2004
Having developed a reputation for being able to go the extra mile and doing things differently Global grew quickly and our customers stuck with us. The team expanded and some of our current key personnel joined the business. We continued to attract talent and with this came a greater level of capability. We developed a one-stop fleet solution and initially focused on Maintenance, Logistics and Storage, this soon became Fleet Management including Contract Hire and Daily Rental. Rather than focusing on how other operators worked, we walked our own path and focussed not on the established models but what the client wanted to achieve. This paid dividends and our unique, flexible, solutions-based approach went from strength to strength.
2006
We grew quickly between 2005 and 2006 but in a way that was carefully managed. We developed the team and further invested in infrastructure, management and talent to serve a business that required scale. We wanted the thousands of drivers who now experienced Global’s services to feel like they were our only customer and enjoy their relationship with Global. We had managed to grow the business independently, with a reputation for being client-focussed and catering for corporates who saw mobility and fleet as a business-critical issues. We acquired and invested in a further 74,000 sq ft facility with good access to the A1, M1 and M62 motorways. This was followed by the purchasing of two additional buildings, increasing the footprint of 45,000 and 30,000 sq ft plus adjoining land by 2009.
2011
Our growth in Fleet Management culminated in our development of a fantastic facility which was formerly the Ring headlamps head office on Gelderd Road, Leeds. This included 160,000 sq ft internally, 11 bay workshops and overall space to store 1,000 vehicles.
2017
In early 2017 we decided to expand our activity in vehicle hire developing our relationships with the UK’s leading manufacturers. As one of the UK’s largest independent fleet management businesses, we have a reputation for delivering on demand and not just average cars but premium, highly specified vehicles–something the clients appreciated. We carried this reputation into the vehicle hire sector and built a large fleet of desirable vehicles, unlike traditional leasing firms and the broker community our business model is to hold large stocks of vehicles available for immediate use.
To achieve this we purchased The Hub in 2017 as our dedicated head office. Our office complex site here is home to our showroom, 100,000 sq ft of office space and 5 acres of car park where clients can come and discover the latest models from the world’s leading brands in one place. Our operation now means that we stand out from the crowd by holding very large volumes of premium stock across ten acres of secure compound including 260,000 sq ft indoor storage facilities in Leeds.