Aftermarket July/August 2022 Issue

I f you head to that green space at the edge of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, you will find the village of Warmington. If you look a little harder, you will find what looks like a small aircraft hanger. If you have, that means you’ve found The Garage Warmington. Including owner Adrian Smith, The Garage Warmington has three staff, and serves a largely rural customer base, seeing all sorts of vehicles of every age and type. Adrian started by explaining the unique building: “It is an army surplus shed. It came from the army camp about a mile down the road. There used to be a lot around here, but there are very few left. I was talking to a chap a few days ago who was involved in the shed being moved in the early 1960s, and he said there was four of them in the area at one point. Now, this is the only one left standing.” Let’s consider what goes on inside the curved workshop: “We have one two-post lift. We can only get one car in at a time really, as it is quite tight. We are normally one-in-one- out, but we can work outside when the weather is reasonable.” The business was started by Adrian’s father, with his business partner in 1974. “I started coming in on a regular basis to help out when I was about eight, in 1980 and obviously fell in love with mending motor vehicles. After 60 AFTERMARKET JULY/AUGUST 2022 GARAGE VISIT www.aftermarketonline.net Aftermarket recently visited The Garage Warmington, to see how the rural workshop is making its presence felt in a changing world A WARM WELCOME school, I did an apprenticeship, but I did it at another garage, basically, because I've heard a lot of fathers and sons don't get on much in their apprenticeships. “My father's partner passed away in 1994. My dad took on somebody else initially, but later he offered me the job. That was in 1996. I’ve been here ever since. I've had one employee who has been here almost as long as me. People sometimes want to mend their own cars, and he would come in to do that. Later I took him on, on a part- time basis. He went permanent about nine years ago. He was supposed to retire yesterday, but I've managed to persuade to do two days a week. I had to furlough him in the pandemic.” Adrian’s other team member is his son, as you might expect from a family business, but this was not initially part of the plan: “My son was working for another company, and in March 2020 he was furloughed. He came to help out for a couple of weeks. That was March 2020 and he is still here. He's always liked motor cars, but not working on other people’s vehicles so much. However, he came in and he really enjoyed it. I took him on as an apprentice in September. So, the good thing is that we have got three generations, which is what I like.” An accidental dynasty then. Adrian and the guys are also taking on some of the Above: Adrian Smith