Back in the mid 70’s Kawasaki decided that they wanted to change the image of the grubby British motorcycle dealer with the chaotic workshop, the grumpy parts man and indifferent saleman. Up to that point, imports and sales had been a fairly haphazard affair, with most of the early triples being sold by Agrati in Nottingham.
They took the brave and ground breaking step of setting up a network of solo dealers, so if you wanted to sell Kawasaki’s you had to drop the other brands. Staff would be properly trained, premises had to conform to a standard and present a much more professional image. It worked, sales were good and Kawasaki Centres began springing up all over the country.
In Blackpool, we had a Kawasaki Centre in nearby Poulton-le-Fylde. When we were 16, it was a regular evening ride up to the shop to stare at the gleaming machines through the big plate glass window, dreaming of the day when you would get a KH250 on L plates.
