Entrepreneurship and community care at core of Leggat Auto Group as it celebrates 100 years in business

One hundred years ago, a young Roy Leggat left his family's Stoney Creek farm with a $3,000 loan from his mother and a dream in his pocket.

That year, Roy opened the doors of his first auto dealership - under the name Leggat Motor Sales - at the corner of King and Bay streets in downtown Hamilton.

He started out by selling Ruggles trucks.

He started out in business when the horse and buggy were still the main way to get around," said his son, Doug Leggat, in a recent interview with The Spectator. I really do think it was a leap of faith."

That shot in the dark has turned into the foundation of the family's business, now known as Leggat Auto Group, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

In the early days, the family's footprint in the auto industry didn't stretch far beyond the Hamilton-Burlington area.

Today, they own and operate around a dozen dealerships across the province, with their name stretching from Ancaster to Owen Sound.

Gone are the days of Ruggles - they now deal in Cadillac, Kia, Mazda, Chevrolet and Ford, among other makes.

The bedrock for that growth came from Roy, said Brian Leggat, who is the third-generation owner of the company and the grandson of its founder.

Every morning, Roy would head into the shop early, where he'd fill the pot-bellied stoves with coal to warm up the building, wash down all the windows and sweep the floors.

He worked like no one else," said Doug. And you look back at that and you appreciate what he did."

The family took Roy's example and ran with it.

Doug entered the family business in 1968, purchasing his own dealership in Burlington with the help of a loan from his father. Brian got involved in the 1980s, making a jump into the business after university and working his way up.

Doug points to Brian as the instigator behind the company's marvellous" growth, noting that he's started a new name" for the business - however, the road to 100 years in business hasn't always been smooth or straight.

Like nearly every enterprise, the business has felt the impact of the ebbs and flows of the economy over the last century, said Doug.

During the Great Depression, Roy would show up at the dealership each morning to cars that had been dropped off overnight, abandoned by their owners who could no longer afford them.

He had to keep making the payments on those cars," said Doug. That would have been one of his biggest challenges at that time."

The company has also continued to evolve since it first started, witnessing the advent of power steering, in-car air conditioning, seatbelts, backup cameras, in-car technology and now, the move to electric vehicles.

It's probably as big a transition as we've ever seen," said Brian. Things have changed by leaps and bounds from where they were when I began."

But getting to their centennial anniversary hasn't been just navigating changes, noted Doug, who retired around five years ago.

The business' success has also relied on support from their families as well as the level of dedication to their staff - whether they've been with the company for five years or four decades.

It's a real accomplishment as far as I'm concerned," said Doug. We've made it a great place to work."

The family has also maintained the entrepreneurial spirit" that was instilled in them by their grandfather, said Brian.

Everybody has had the opportunity to spread their wings if they chose to do so," said Brian. Allowing each of us to carve our own path."

Their focus on helping others has also been at the core of their success - marking another trait the family inherited from Roy, who would leave the doors of used cars unlocked so unhoused folks could have a place to sleep at night, noted Doug.

Through the Leggat Care Foundation, the family has supported City Kidz, McMaster Children's Hospital, the local Ronald McDonald House, Hamilton Food Share and the Eva Rothwell Centre.

We feel that the community has supported us through our endeavours and we have an obligation to do the same," said Brian. We give back as much as we can."

Fallon Hewitt is a reporter at The Spectator. fhewitt@thespec.com