John Hutchinson's Tale

The September meeting was held at the Jack Russell Inn, Faccombe. The meeting was well attended, not only for the excellent food that Simon and Carol (Mine Hosts) always serve, but to hear our guest speaker John Hutchinson. Introduced by Phil Parkinson, John was the Export Parts and Service Manager for Jaguar

John began his tale after National Service and how he was deemed to old for an conventional apprenticeship but fortunately managed to secure a mature apprenticeship with Morris Commercial Vehicles. After qualifying, John joined BMC Service Ltd Export and spent a number of years traveling to overseas distributors dealing with service queries and training service mechanics.

Joh NHuthinson and Phil Parkinson

Phil Parkinson (right) receives a "Gold Leaper" on behalf of JDC Area1 from John Hutchinson

On one such trip to Nepal , John was somewhat concerned to receive a summons, via the British Embassy , to visit the King of Nepal. The King and his family ran a fleet of BMC vehicles and wanted, this obviously talented and important BMC representative, to service the cars. John duly carried out the task. The thought did cross his mind of what might happen if he made a mistake and the vehicles were worse after his work. It must have been a success, since the request was repeated on subsequent visits.

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"A Canterbury Tale?" John Hutchinson's Tale
The September meeting was held at the Jack Russell Inn, Faccombe. The meeting was well attended, not only for the excellent food that Simon and Carol (Mine Hosts) always serve, but to hear our guest speaker John Hutchinson. Introduced by Phil Parkinson, John was the Export Parts and Service Manager for Jaguar John began his tale after National Service and how he was deemed to old for an conventional apprenticeship but fortunately managed to secure a mature apprenticeship with Morris Commercial Vehicles. After qualifying, John joined BMC Service Ltd Export and spent a number of years traveling to overseas distributors dealing with service queries and training service mechanics.	Phil Parkinson (right) receives a "Gold Leaper" on behalf of JDC Area1 from John Hutchinson
On one such trip to Nepal , John was somewhat concerned to receive a summons, via the British Embassy , to visit the King of Nepal. The King and his family ran a fleet of BMC vehicles and wanted, this obviously talented and important BMC representative, to service the cars. John duly carried out the task. The thought did cross his mind of what might happen if he made a mistake and the vehicles were worse after his work. It must have been a success, since the request was repeated on subsequent visits.
We all know that the reliable supply of quality parts is the life blood of any car manufacturer, so it was a logical progression from service to parts when John joined Unipart (the parts division of the whole of British Leyland products) as Area Sales Executive and later as Regional Sales Manager (Eastern Hemisphere) for parts and business development for Land Rover, Rover, Triumph. Jaguar, Austin/Morris and Unipart. John was responsible for sales and contracts to Governments and the ministry of defence. The above got John closer to Jaguar and his experience of parts,and overseas markets saw him appointed Regional Sales Manager for Jaguar Cars covering the Far East and Middle East. dealing with parts facilities, pricing, dealer networks and Jaguar parts supply and availability. During this time John wrote the Jaguar Parts Minimum Standards a crucial document aimed at improving the quality of parts and hence Jaguar Cars. Overseas travel was still a prominent feature of Johns life. Asked to visit Syria he enquired about he safety of doing so, this was at the time when John McCarthy and Terry Waite had been kidnapped in Beirut. John was assured that the dealership was in North Beirut and he would be fine. John went, the meeting took place and it was time to return the 10 miles or so to the airport. (John McCarthy was kidnapped whilst making this self same journey) It was a journey not to be forgotten with road blocks every mile, manned by armed youths. At each stop, "Is this the one where I 'll be hauled out of the car and incarcerated like John and Terry or even killed"?, went through John's mind. Eventually he reached the safety of the airport and returned home.
John spoke eloquently and with quiet enthusiasm of his time in Jaguar, of meetings with Senior Directors at Jaguar HQ and his continuing travel as Export Parts Manager to set up new joint ventures with Jaguar Japan, Jaguar Australia and Jaguar New Zealand. He was praising of the amount of investment that Ford put in, after it acquired Jaguar. Without it Jaguar was unlikely to have survived. He visualised and confirmed our view of Jaguar as a company where management and workforce alike, took great pride in its quality and the its products. In 1991 after 27 years traveling and 33 yeas service John retired. In conclusion, we were surprised to hear he had never owned a Jaguar and confessed to currently driving a Peugeot 406. However he is considering buying a Jaguar XK8 which perked up the XK8 owners amongst us.. Our thanks to John for an entertaining evening and for the gift of a "gold leaper" as a memento of the occasion. Thanks also to Phil and Sue Parkinson for organising the evening. Why Canterbury tales? During his travels, the closest to Canterbury John, probably, got was New Zealand which is a dubious connection. This apart, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were the stories of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and "Johns Tale" was the story of a pilgrimage from National Service to Jaguar Cars. DE Sept 2010
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