In 2024 Kenhire celebrate 75 years of business, a landmark that we are immensly proud of.

The following notes and images detail our story over the years.

The company began life in 1949 when founder Don Kennedy started 'The Mobile Car Repair Service', converting a 25cwt Austin Threeway van into a mobile workshop equipped to handle any roadside emergency.

After taking on his first employee - an apprentice at £1 5s a week - Mr Kennedy soon had to establish the company's first premises. So a World War II nissen hut costing £8 was erected in a builder's yard in Kennington in 1950.

The first hire cars - two 1936 Morris 10s costing £230 each - went on the road in the same year, followed by a 1939 Morris 8 and a 1938 Model Y Ford shortly after.

These vehicles were operated from the company's premises in Kennington, which had now expanded to two Nissen huts. The hire charge was £1.15s per day, although obtaining enough rationed petrol to operate, at 2s 6d a gallon, was quite a challenge!

1951 also saw the addition of a full time mechanic to help with the repair side of the business which had begun to flourish.

A 1937 Ford V8 Tractor breakdown was bought to replace the original mobile workshop and the following year the first van arrived, a 1946 Morris 8, although its use was limited due to the Carrier's licence restrictions in place at the time.

In the summer of 1954, frustrated at having lost 3 of his 4 hire cars to theft, fire and accident, Don Kennedy decided became the ‘Don’ in LesDons Coaches, an overseas coach tour business, to see if this might be a little less risky than car hire. Having bought a 1946 Bedford OB Duple body 29 seater, LesDons ran for 3 years alongside the hire & garage operation.

A change of name to 'Kennedy's Self Drive Hire' followed the establishment of Kennedy's Garage in 1955, and soon afterwards the new garage was opened on Faversham Road, Kennington, having cost £4000 to build.

The increase in hire business that resulted from the move into the new garage, meant that newer vehicles were needed, leading to Kennedy's becoming an official Standard-Triumph dealership in 1957. But it soon became apparent that Triumphs weren’t suitable to use as hire cars, so when the first brand new cars were bought for the hire fleet they were Vauxhalls: 10 Victors purchased at £850 each.

In 1960 Kennedy's Garage became a limited company. The hire fleet now totalled 14 vehicles: 10 Victors, 2 Morris 1000s, 1 Fiat 500 and 1 Bedford CA 15cwt Van, so the firm’s 3 ton truck was swapped for some adjoining land to accommodate them and plans were put in motion to expand the garage.

Road accidents caused by the harsh winters of the early 1960’s put heavy demands on Kennedy’s body repairs, so the sprayshop and bodyshop had to be expanded, a two-lift lubrication bay was included in the development and the parts stores expanded to three times their original size.

By 1963 the mechanical shop had reached 3600 sq ft and boasted a modern tyre bay housing all the latest repair and balancing equipment and the new purpose-built showroom was proving a success due to a car sales boom brought about by the relaxing of hire purchase restrictions.

As both the hire fleet and workshop became more successful, the workforce continually grew, reaching 20 in 1964.

In 1965 Kennedy’s became a Ford dealership, meaning that cars such as the Cortina, Classic and Anglia could be added to the rental fleet.

When Ford opened a new garage in Ashford in 1967, they cancelled Kennedy’s dealership, which caused a slump in the garage trade.

Shorty afterwards, Mercedes asked whether Kennedy's would take on their service agency, which brought an influx of new customers. But as Mercedes weren’t suitable for hire cars a Vauxhall/Bedford agency was added in 1968, which proved a useful source of vans for rental.

Lack of space was again becoming a problem, so in 1969 new offices, a parts showroom and a reception area were added.

In 1969, the A, B & C licences needed to drive goods vehicles were abolished, resulting in a boom in van rental. Kennedy’s Self Drive immediately added 3 Bedford 18cwt vans to the fleet and introduced a mileage charge of 2d per mile for hire vehicles.

In 1972, Don Kennedy set up Kenhire Ltd to take over the running of the rental fleet from the Kennington site and livery was added to the hire vans for the first time. With space becoming limited, half an acre of land was purchased on the Henwood Industrial Estate for £9000 and construction of a purpose-built rental depot began in September 1972.

Watch the history our depot

Kenhire’s new premises were completed in June 1973 and the all-British fleet of 36 vehicles (valued at £31,000) including such models as the Triumph Toledo, Vauxhall Viva and Hillman Hunter, was transferred there.

In 1974 Kennedy’s Garage was sold, meaning that Don Kennedy’s efforts could focus on Kenhire and within two years of opening the new site, the number of hire vehicles had reached 50.

Minibuses were first added to the fleet in 1974 and new vans were permanently on order as Kenhire struggled to keep up with demand.

The car fleet in the mid-seventies included models like the Vauxhall Chevette, Ford Fiesta. Morris Ital and Ford Cortina Estate.

By 1976 Kenhire had added motor caravans to its range, using two specially built prototype Bedford Highlanders which turned out to be the only ones ever built, as well as the first 4 ton lorry, a Bedford KD.

With the fleet size growing, major extensions were carried out in 1979, allowing the installation of a Wilcomatic automatic car wash, opened to the public in 1980.

By March 1980, the hire fleet totalled 84 vehicles: 34 cars, 5 minibuses, 3 motor caravans and 42 vans and trucks, being made up of 52 being Vauxhall/Bedford models, 25 Fords and 7 British Leylands.

Current Managing Director Paul Kennedy joined the company in 1982 and as the economy thrived, the commercial vehicle sector saw unprecedented growth. So Kenhire added more specialised vehicles to meet customers’ demand.

By now, the spread of cars was quite wide and included such models as Mini, Chevette, Fiesta, Marina, Cavalier, Cortina and VX, in a range of saloon, hatchback, estate and automatic versions.

The first 7.5 ton tipper, a Ford Cargo 0811, was added in 1985 and although this particular vehicle was written off in an accident shortly afterwards, within 4 years Kenhire had 13 of these vehicles available.

With lack of space becoming a pressing problem, Kenhire bought an additional third of an acre in 1986 and set about creating a secure yard for parking, which was soon in full use as the increasing range of commercial vehicles helped the total fleet size reach 100 for the first time in 1987.

Kenhire’s policy had always been to supply vehicles with a full fuel tank, but an increase in diesel vehicles meant that a diesel tank facility had to be incorporated in the new compound.

To allow an improved delivery and collection service, a Bedford TL was converted to a car transporter and then, reminiscent of the 1949 mobile workshop days, a Transit van was equipped with all the equipment and parts necessary for on-site servicing.

These services proved useful when in August 1987, as a result of increased long-term hire demand, Kenhire began a remarkable run of adding 73 vehicles in 12 months – an average of one new vehicle every 5 days!

1989 saw the company celebrate 40 years in business, and alongside the ever-present Escort, Astra, Sierra and Transit models, the fleet now included vehicles such as the Vauxhall Nova, Ford Orion, Austin Montego, Ford Granada, Vauxhall Astramax and the new Ford P100 pick-up.

In 1990, at the age of 70 Don Kennedy retired from his beloved motor trade, leaving son Paul as managing director to continue the rapid expansion of the firm.

This year also saw the introduction of a range of small trailers available for hire, although the first vehicles with tow bars weren’t added to the fleet for another three years!

In August 1991 Kenhire was invited to become one of the founding members of the United Rental Group – a new organisation formed to create a national network of the best local rental companies, a relationship which continues to this day.

Kenhire extended the workshop again in 1992 and opened a new commercial vehicle wash, which was the first lorry wash in the area open to the public. To keep it working during that year’s hosepipe ban a water recycling plant was also installed.

Throughout the 1990s the workshop continued to be developed, mainly to ensure that rental customers had the best back-up possible. However with the hire fleet becoming increasingly newer and more reliable, the workload to maintain them was reducing, so the decision was taken to once again offer garage services to the general public. Aided by the introduction of fixed price servicing, Kenhire’s workshop services quickly became very popular and soon extra mechanics and new lifts had to be installed.

Although Kenhire’s cars and minibuses had long been offered without any mileage restrictions, van hire had always been limited to 50 miles per day, with an excess mileage charge applied.

By 1996 customers were taking vans further afield, so with demand rising, unlimited mileage was introduced across the entire hire fleet.

In consultation with its developers. Kenhire helped set up the Rent Assist software system, adopting it in 1997 to computerise the front office booking system and vehicle records for the first time.

In order to save costs on signwriting, in 1999 Kenhire purchased a system to produce vinyl graphics, but this soon became another service that was offered to customers, with graphic designs often being added to vehicles when they were sold or taken on long term hire.

The turn of the new century saw Kenhire launch its inaugural website, www.kenhire.uk.com, using it to provide information on the range of hire vehicles, rental options and vehicles for sale, although it was some years before the system could accommodate online bookings.

In the early years of the new century, contract hire became a popular option for company fleets and Kenhire won a number of contracts for the supply of both new and used vehicles to a range of local organisations. The savings and service that long term hire customers enjoyed meant that in January 2008 Kenhire’s contract fleet broke the 100 vehicle mark.

By 2008, Kenhire’s workshops were looking after many of the town’s taxis, so LTI, the manufacturers of the London Hackney Cab, awarded Kenhire a servicing agency, allowing maintenance and warranty repairs for any London cab.

A customer’s request for help finding a solution to their overloading problems led to Kenhire becoming agents for PM Onboard’s Van Weigh payload monitoring system in 2009, and the same year saw the addition of air conditioning service equipment, enabling the repair and re-gassing of air con and climate control systems.

2012 saw the installation of a Maha MOT bay and Kenhire were awarded full MOT status for Class 4, 5 & 7 vehicles in June, appointing three MOT inspectors to handle the influx of extra work.

Kenhire's contract hire fleet had its first ever first refrigerated van added in 2013.

With pressures on space mounting, the car parking area on the Henwood site was extended again in 2014.

Although this allowed more room for both hire and workshop customers’ vehicles, its primary purpose was to display ex-rental vehicles for sale, which were constantly available as a result of the continual updating of the hire fleet.

In 2016 the hire fleet was expanded to include caged tippers and a telematics option was offered to customers for the first time, giving corporate hirers the option to track vehicles and check on driver performance.

In the garage, a Hofmann four-wheel alignment unit was added, making Kenhire one of the few garages in the area offering this service.

An increasing throughput of body repairs led to the installation of a new Rowley Aero Maxi spray booth and paint mixing facility in the bodyshop in mid 2019, which helped improve the speed and finish quality of accident repairs.

The first petrol/hybrid car arrived on the fleet at this time, as the move towards alternative fuel vehicles began.

As the changes to the rules for C1 & D1 groups on new driving licences started to take effect, fewer customers were able to drive large minibuses and 7.5ton trucks, so in 2020 these vehicle groups were removed from the rental fleet, meaning that 9 seaters and 3.5ton vehicles were now the largest options for hire.

By now the range of vehicle marques available for hire had widened to include Kia, Hyundai, Volvo, VW, Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen and Toyota, as well as the more traditional Fords and Vauxhalls.

The supply of new vehicles became a major issue in the early 2020s, but hire cars & vans remained busy throughout the Covid lockdowns, and a lot of time was spent streamlining procedures with improvements that continue to operate today.

As the call for electric vehicles began to gain momentum, first electric van was trialled in 2022 but it was soon established that the range and charging limitations meant that EVs were more likely to gain traction first as long term hires for companies operating locally, with daily rental customers following once the electric concept became more widely accepted..

With Paul Kennedy looking to take a less active role in the business, the day to day running of Kenhire was handed to long-time rental manager Olivia Gannon in 2022 and as vehicle availability improved, increasing demand for hire meant that Olivia was able was able to begin expanding the fleet at its quickest rate for many years.

In 2023 the decision was taken to close the workshop to retail customers and devote all the company’s resources to the rental side of the business, dedicating the workshop facilities to the support and upkeep of the short-term rental and contract hire fleets.

Today, with rental as the primary focus, the business is going from strength to strength and we continue to take immense pride in our approach to business, so whatever kind of vehicle rental you need, be it for personal or business use, you can rely on Kenhire to provide a friendly, efficient and totally professional service at extremely competitive prices.