A short history lesson…

The Balco name first appeared way back in the ’80s and subsequently became a world-leader in the manufacturing of ground-breaking tyre equipment, responsible for some of the best loved, most cutting-edge alignment and balancing equipment the market had ever seen.

That success soon led to the company to become part of the Snap-on Tools empire, where it flourished under the huge reach and resources that affiliation was able to provide. Certainly, for nearly 3 decades, you could barely pass a workshop without seeing a product bearing the logo.

Following a rationalisation of brands in the early 2000s, the Balco name was retired, leading to a hiatus of some 20 years. However, the legacy continued to survive, thanks to a remarkable longevity of both product and reputation, and in 2002 the name re-emerged in the UK with a range of tyre and wheel equipment that mirrored the ‘quality and value’ ethos of the originals all those years ago.

Living up to the past success…

Today, Balco Automotive is once again a privately owned company, made up of an increasingly rare combination of expert knowledge, passion, customer-focus and proven, class-leading equipment.

A nice sub-plot to this story is that the owner, James Boon, has gone ‘full-circle’. James started his career working firstly with a Balco distributor at the tender age of 17, before joining Balco UK just 3 years later. More than 3 decades later, James has enjoyed an illustrious career immersed in the wheel service equipment business, including product development that led to some of the best selling tyre changer and wheel balancer models of all time.

We have no desire to be a ‘big’ company. We are proud to be a small, select group of talented and committed individuals with a wealth of experience, each with our own unique reputation built over many years.

Focusing on what we do best, which is unequivocally ‘around the wheel’, allows us to provide an undiluted and specialist approach, which in turn provides our customers nationwide with the very best value, advice and after-sales support.