Brothers Harry and Jim Quick started the H & J Quick company in 1912. Harry Quick served a 5-year apprenticeship with Sale Motor Company from 1906-1911, and with the Fiat Landaulette he received for his 21st birthday, set up a taxi business. Jim Quick began work in the building trade, but was dissatisfied with the work. In March 1912, the brothers formed the H & J Quick partnership and built a garage in Old Trafford. The partnership's association with the Ford Motor Company began in March 1914, when H & J Quick became a Ford sub-dealership. Henry Ford had set up his first UK factory in Trafford Park in October 1911, not far from the Quick's garage. The company became a private limited company, H & J Quick Ltd, in 1919, after becoming a main Ford dealership. In 1921, the company moved to premises on Chester Road. The company expanded to take over other Ford dealerships across Manchester and Salford and during the 1920s and 1930s built a number of depots across the local area, including Altrincham, Ashton-under-Lyne and Bury. H & J Quick Ltd became a public company in 1946. Continued expansion led to the formation of the H & J Quick Group of companies in 1965. The Quick family association with the Dealership continued unbroken until the company was purchased by C D Brammall in c.2000. Brammall later changed their name to Evans Halshaw and was eventually taken over by Pendragon Holdings plc in 2004.

The Ford company was established in Great Britain in October 1910. In order to promote the company's desire to be seen as a company building cars for the British market using locally sources parts put together by local employees, the Ford Motor Company (England) Limited was established in 1911. At the same time the company moved from London to a new factory at Trafford Park, Manchester. The success of the company continued and as a result larger premises were required, the company chose a site in Dagenham on the banks of the River Thames and eventually the new plant was opened there in 1931. The Trafford Park factory continued to operate whilst Dagenham was being built and as a shadow factory, during the Second World War, building Merlin engines until 1946, when production was stopped and the factory was sold.

Director of H & J Quick Ltd, automobile engineers and agents.