Our Story
In the year the Toronto Blueshirts won the Stanley Cup, Stephen Leacock published Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and World War 1 begins, W.R. Sachs founds an auto parts store in Toronto and names it Garage Supply before being sent off to war.
Staying true to our roots, our 3rd generation family leadership team continues to innovate as automotive and heavy-duty equipment industry leaders.
IT ALL STARTED IN 1914…
1914
WR Sachs founds Garage Supply then is sent to off to fight in WW1, leaving others in charge of the store.
1919
WR Sachs returns and incorporates Garage Supply Co. Ltd.
1923
Publishes his first Auto Parts Catalogue
1929
Earl Barnett is hired by W.R. Sachs as his personal
assistant.
1931
GS builds new Head Office @ 36 Breadalbane St (Bay
St. south of Wellesley St)
GS opens first branch in Belleville, Ontario
1934
GS opens new branch in Hamilton, Ontario
1938
GS opens new branch in Kitchener, Ontario
1947
New Branch opened in St. Catherines
New Branch opened in Orillia (Earl Barnett manager,
Hubert Sheriff Office Manager, Helen Potter, secretary)
1948
WR Sachs sells most of his shares to his employees.
Company is now employee owned. (Earl Barnett owns
many shares of Garage Supply Co. Ltd.).
1950
New Branch opened in West Toronto
1952
8th Branch opened in East Toronto
1954
Managers of Branches in Belleville, Hamilton, Kitchener, St. Catherines and Orillia purchase their respective Branches thus becoming Independent Companies.
Garage Supply (Orillia) Limited becomes legal
independent company owned by Earl Barnett.
Garage Supply Co. Head Office takes on role as one of the first Warehouse Distributors selling to it’s own branches and the independent Garage Supply stores.
1957
Garage Supply Co. opens it’s 9th Branch on Jane St.
1960
Garage Supply Orillia opens branches in Midland and Lindsay.
Midland branch operates successfully for years, burns down once, relocated 2x and is eventually sold in 1980’s
Lindsay branch operates for sometime with Jim Barnett as sales rep in the area but closes in 1970’s during a recession.
Garage Supply Toronto moves headquarters to Thorncliff Park. Renamed as Leaside Warehousing. Most of the private GS branches sell to McKerlie Millen and eventually
become Carquest stores and Leaside Whse fades away.
Eventually GS Orillia becomes the only store operating under the Garage Supply name.
1967
Earl Barnett & 5 other jobbers form new buying group called Replacement Parts Depot Limited or RPDL
RPDL would prove to be very important to GSO
growth and success over the next 40 years.
RPDL was our biggest supplier and biggest source of
profit over those 40 years
1974
Earl Barnett sells company to Don Bourne, Doug and Alex Barnett and retires.
1983
Earl Barnett founder of Garage Supply Orillia and RPDL passes away.
Late 1980's
Garage Supply opens a new branch in Bracebridge under the management of Len Mercer.
Late 1990's
Bracebridge Branch sold to Muskoka Auto Parts after becoming THE major Auto Parts store in Muskoka under Len’s leadership.
1996
Garage Supply opens GS Autobody Supply at 95 Dufferin St in the same building under the management of Vern Ewanchuck and his fully trained staff.
Early 2000's
Garage Supply equipment business headed by Doug, grows along side the auto parts business with the addition of installation services headed by Ken Tudhope.
2006
Garage Supply Limited spins off a new company called Garage Supply Contracting Inc. as a separate company both companies now jointly owned by Doug & Alex Barnett.
2006 - 2012
Both companies & GS Autobody exist under the same roof sharing staff, computer systems, warehouse, trucks and forklift.
2012
Garage Supply Limited, tired of having its forklift and trucks mysteriously disappear without warning, suggest Contracting get their own place.
Garage Supply Contracting moves to Line 13 North in Oro-Medonte and buys its own forklifts.
Garage Supply Limited & GS Autobody are sold to Bay Auto of Barrie leaving Garage Supply Contracting as the only Garage Supply now operating
Some of our founders
See Garage Supply through the years
CATALOGUE 10
1923 Product Catalogue includes a confidential discount sheet, hundreds of prices and description for parts and tools and printable order sheets for placing orders.
CATALOGUE 21
Product catalogue showing products sold in 1940 along with the staff at the time of the Silver Anniversary in 1939.
CATALOGUE 22
The first catalogue produced after 9 years due to postwar conditions. Includes photos of location and workers, officers of the company during the first year of employee ownership and of course the products themselves.
100 Year Presentation
Check out the 100 year evolution of Garage Supply in this interactive powerpoint presentation. See what things were like 100 years ago and how they compare to how they are today! Must have the free version of powerpoint viewer to view this presentation. You can download it here.
100 Year Presentation
Check out the 100 year evolution of Garage Supply in a .pdf format. See what things were like 100 years ago and how they compare to how they are today! Must have the free version of Adobe Reader to view this presentation. You can download it here.
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