Here’s a fun fact about Brown’s Automotive president Gary Brown.
He actually grew up in the apartment above the Brown’s old showroom on Main Street in Bellport Village — a building that still stands today.
“As a kid remember sweeping the floor, doing whatever we had to do to take care of the overall facility,” Brown says in a special centennial video the company has just released.
The Brown’s operation began in 1917, when Gary Brown’s grandfather, Everett Brown, then 24 years old, started his repair shop in Bellport with Willys Knight & Whippet.
Gary Brown became president in 1992, when his father, Robert Brown, became the last of Everett Brown’s three boys to retire from the family business they ran throughout most of the last century. Brown’s moved to Route 112 in Patchogue in 1993.
Click here for a complete timeline.
In the video, Gary Brown says he’s often asked his proudest moments at the century-old operation.
“I can say that, in recent memory, we had a Great Recession in ’08, ’09 and 10, and during that time I rallied all the individuals,” Brown says in the video.
“This is Long Island; people need cars,” he assured the staff.
But this was also a time when the Chrysler Corporation was in bankruptcy, had shut down and was not producing cars.
“I said, ‘Guys we’ll figure this out together. We’ll find used cars. We’ll find bicycles. We’ll do something, as long as we do it together,'” he said. “What I’m most proud of is we didn’t lay off a single person during the Great Recession. We were able to retain every single employee, and as soon as we came out of it, we started growing like crazy.
“We’ve doubled our sales since then and have grown as an overall company.”
Brown’s Automotive Group is hosting a centennial celebration from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the dealership at 438 Route 112 in Patchogue. Presentations are at 5 p.m.
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