APRIL 2024 AFTERMARKET 57 www.aftermarketonline.net Edward remembered: “I’ll ask him sometimes and he will say yes, through gritted teeth. To be honest, neither me or Harry are on the tools as much anymore, but we've got a nice balance.” The garage is centred around the main workshop, which has nine ramps, with a satellite site just up the road able to handle a wider array of vehicles taking in horse boxes and various larger vehicles including LCVs and camper vans. He continued: “When Harry and I joined there was just six of us working from the one unit. In the last few years we've had quite a bit of expansion. First, we took on the units down the road, where we can do light commercials, motorhomes, horse boxes, vans and everything like that. We saw there's a big need for it around in the area. Then, two years ago, the unit next door became available, and they don't come up very often. We took a chance and it's definitely paid off. We now have 13 ramps in total, with two MOT bays just on this site. Including my dad, I think now there are 19 of us.” The business has grown as the town has expanded: “When we knew they were going to build 1,000 homes on what was Ridgewood Farm, we knew we would need more space. With 1,000 extra homes, most will have two cars. We would need to be able to handle the extra numbers.” Challenges On the challenges of running the business, Edward observed: “We have the same challenge as everyone; Staffing. Technicians are getting harder and harder to come by, but we made our own problem by not growing our own as an industry. We always have one or two apprentices, but a lot of garages won't take apprentices on. We've got one, Connor, who's just finished his apprenticeship and is qualified now.” Top Garage Musing on their home town for a moment, in relation to being a regular finalist in Top Garage, Edward said: “It's not a massive town and that's why we're immensely proud of what we do, because to be in the top strata of garages in the country coming from little old Uckfield is quite humbling. “We have been a Top Garage finalist twice. We are delighted to have James as Top Service Advisor, so we got a gong that way We got the finalist certificates, but I want to get that Top Garage award. Even to be in the final it is really competitive.” On what the business has learned from the process, Edward observed: “You normally compare yourself to garages in the area, whereas when you're in a competition like Top Garage, you compare yourself to the other Top Garage competitors. It's actually more useful because the other garages are very high quality. I look at what they're doing, their social media, and I speak to quite a few of the garage owners, such as Tim Benson from Oldfields Motor Services, who won this year. I know him relatively well. We chat every so often.” “Top Garage is a really good process because it gets you thinking. Even if you don't win it, you get to take away something from the experience because of the questions you will be asked. Afterwards, you end up asking yourself; ‘Am I doing that correctly? Am I doing it to the best of my ability?’” Future Looking towards what comes next, Edward added: “We are having a little bit of a shake up on our systems and processes, and hopefully getting a new front of house staff member, which should free James up to do a little bit more on the customer service side. We're always quite hot on training anyway, but we will be investing quite a bit in training for all of the team. We are looking to expand the reception area too. It's quite small, and it’s been that size since we were just one unit. We also want to attract the right work.” He concluded: “It's about trying to get the right balance to attract the right work.”
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