Maxwise Motor Factors

For motorists the journey that parts fitted to their cars will have taken to get to them is pretty unfathomable. For the technicians, factors and parts manufacturers that make up the supply chain, however, it’s everything.

Regular readers will have seen CAT’s profile of remanufacturing business Autoelectro in our March edition. We follow the chain from them, to one of the company’s most loyal customers, Bradford-based factoring business Maxwize Motor Spares, to one of their most loyal customers, MG specialist Maxsted and Sons.

Maxwize owner Mazer Iqbal has been in the motor trade since he was 15, progressing through the ranks at his brother’s shop in nearby Leeds. Now in charge of the Bradford site of Maxwize Motor Spares, Iqbal was faced with an opportunity to move to a bigger premises closer to the centre of the town: “Where we were before we were falling over each other, we were growing out of it too quickly.”

The move wouldn’t come cheap, however. In fact all in it would cost over half a million pounds, split between buying the site and renovating the derelict building which stood upon it. “We took this shop as bare walls, we needed to do the floors and everything. It was high development. The place was shattered and run down. It was a big investment, but it has paid off.”

A year and a half after signing the papers, Maxwize opened its new doors to the public. Since then, the business focus has been on building up relationships. “I believe it’s about how you deal with your customers,” says Manager John Gallagher. “You know you’ll be manic during some hours, while people get their first jobs going. It’ll then go quiet as people get on with those jobs and then the phones will start ringing again. You need to get those phones answered and then get the parts out.”

The site is big enough to also allow Maxwize to do some retailing. Its prime location means that customers can quite often drop by from the main road. The team’s friendly reputation means that about 40 percent of its retail customers are women.

Iqbal says that reputation is well deserved, and it’s meant that the business now has a core group of loyal customers: “We’ve got garages who will only use us, who will ring us 15-20 times a day. Once they know they’re getting a good price and a good service they won’t go anywhere else.”

One of those customers is Maxsted and Sons, an MG specialist based at the lower end of the town. Surrounded by competing businesses and with a wide range of local factors to choose from, owner Nick says he gets almost all his parts from Maxwize. “We have a great relationship with them. We get a top-notch service, and we’re mates with a lot of the people there. It’s little things like there might be three versions of the same part. They’ll send all three so we can see which one to use, no qualms. Other motor factors won’t do that.

“We also know that if they have it in stock, it’ll be here in ten minutes. He won’t hang around.”

Owner Maz Iqbal

The garage has stood for 40 years, and takes on a variety of work including track car preparation. Nick admits that times are hard, but it’s thanks to the support of other local businesses like Maxwize that he’s able to take on more work.

From the moment the day starts all aspects of the supply chain need to work together. From the technician who places an order for a new alternator, to Iqbal at Maxwize who will dispatch the part fast, all the way up to Tony Bhogal and his team at Autoelectro who need to make sure the factor is stocked. It’s a dance that garage, factor and supplier all have to pull off so smoothly that the motorist has no idea it is happening at all.

Marina Motors exterior

Marina Motors started life as a love story. The former owner of the garage ran a petrol forecourt where he fell head over spanner in love with a young pump attendant called Marina. He named the garage after her and it has stuck to this day.

Phil Guest inherited the ‘shop when the lovestruck owner asked him to run it as a partnership. Phil had started in the trade at a young age: “I worked at a scrapyard as a kid and then started stock car racing when I was about 15. We had an old Hillman Minx which we used to race.

“That had a big influence on me, on what I wanted to do. I applied for an apprenticeship and I got one with the biggest franchised dealer in West Yorkshire. I got on their racing team as well. We used to go all over with the team.”

The site has grown and expanded in the 42 years Phil has been there, but it’s only in the past few that he’s taken the decision to become a member of the Bosch Autocrew network: “We were asked to be a Bosch service centre about 12 years ago. We had just rebranded the whole site and we didn’t want to re-sign the place. Autocrew kept asking, however, so eventually we said yes.”

Phil says the technical backup and support from Bosch is very good, but he hasn’t seen any work materialise from the group’s deal with the RAC.

Marina Motors isn’t short of work, though. Phil says his business is built on three strands: from the local housing estates; West Yorkshire Police; and 1Link lease company work.

“We have a massive customer base and we just keep going. Our accountant can look at our month-on-month figures and tell us what we’ll bring in. It’s predictable like that.”

Equally predictable is the sort of work Marina Motors is turning over when CAT visits in winter. Batteries, batteries, batteries. So many of them, in fact, that the business has won a Bosch competition for selling batteries and invested in new testing equipment. “The tester proves the condition of the battery, the starter and the alternator,” says Phil. “It’s peace of mind for the customer if everything’s alright, and extra work if it identifies a problem.”

Extra work is always welcome, but in an area as crowded as this it’s also hard to come by. Phil has grown his business through loyalty, both from his customers and to his factors. While he gets most of his parts from nationals already in the town, there’s also a regular account with a local factor down the road.

Customers coming through the door are met by any one of three office staff. With a third of his workforce working on reception Phil admits it’s overkill, but seeing to a customer fast is part of his business plan. Advertising is key, too: “The thing with business is that you have to be thinking outside the box all the time. We’re always running campaigns, for discounted MOTs or discounted service. We blitz advertise air conditioning or winter servicing. We’re always doing leaflet drops and things like that.”

Marina Motors has a number of strategies to fall back on if work from the public dries up in any triple dip recession that might hit us. There’s a recovery side to the business and a steady stream of work from other local garages that either can’t do a job or have done something wrong.

Owner Phil Guest

This is welcome extra work for Phil, but it does worry him, too: “The problem is that anyone can open a place and say it’s a garage. There was a workshop which opened nearby, and we thought we would lose work. In fact we’ve gained work from it because we have to keep fixing their mistakes.”

Marina Motors has also found glory in being a CAT Award Finalist this year.

Phil believes there’s only one option left for workshops: “I think formal licensing is the only way now, it will happen. It needs a government body to take over. There are lots of places out there that don’t know what they’re doing.

“If someone says you have to have a license, I would be all for it. It would finish the people who are putting lives at risk. It’s not all about making money. How do I know everyone else is doing a good job?” How indeed.

It would be easy to take different business decisions with the benefit of hindsight, but that’s a mystical power that none of us have.

When Steve Catling, Robin Etherington and Peter Ground succeeded in their management buyout of consumables and parts supplier Pearl Automotive five years ago, they didn’t know the 2008 recession was just around the corner. They are now the Managing Director, Finance Director and Customer Services Director respectively of the company which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Pearl, which started out in consumables before branching out into retail packs and hard parts, has weathered the storm. Its profitability is up, and it’s launched three impressive new catalogues, a very user-friendly iPad catalogue, electronic trading and a slick new website (password protected to ensure it only supplies to the trade).

Its Wot Not pre-pack retail line, Pearl Consumables and High Tech Parts offerings are more distinct from each other. Its private label business is thriving, and it has new blood in the sales department with the recent appointments of Neil Hyett as Sales Manager and Jade Newton Chambers as Internal Sales Development Executive.

Pearl Automotive is poised to take some of the other steps it wasn’t able to in 2008 due to the economy. Catling says: “The last five years have been challenging. Was it a good time to buy? Probably not, but we didn’t know. To be fair, nobody did. It’s been a rollercoaster.

“We are leaner and fitter. The prevailing situation meant we had to look at cost-savings. We needed to get a clear definition of our brands, and we needed to get electronic trading.

“The plans we had in place five years ago we didn’t meet for obvious reasons, but we’ve survived and now we’re ready.”

A major objective from 2008 had been to move out of the 30,000 sq ft unit that Pearl currently occupies in Benfleet, Essex. The company has been in the building for 27 years, and it’s beginning to creak at the seams.

Catling describes it as a ‘rabbit warren’, but Pearl is now on the verge of signing on the dotted line for a new building which should further increase efficiency and profitability.

“What we’re looking to do with it is improve on our service, our availability and our productivity,” says Catling. “It’s about improving the bottom line, because that’s what’s been difficult over the last five years.

“We were also looking for someone who could manage the sales force day-to-day, and we’ve now got the man to do the job,” he says.

Neil Hyett is that man: “What I wanted to do is look at the orders coming in and see where we could upsell. Jade’s very clued up on this sales process, but she’s also good at getting us on Twitter and getting the website updated.

“We want to be growing the sales by four percent this year which, in the current marketplace, is challenging, but we’ve got the brand new cataloguing and interactive version which is really, really important. It’s modernised, and the impact it has is huge.”

The iPad version is certainly eye-catching and easy to use. The sales team are equipped with them when they go to meet customers, and it’s available to download now from the Pearl website.

With its ability to jump far more quickly from one product range to another, it should certainly help Pearl with an uplift in sales numbers along with the new paper versions.

Catling says of the Pearl catalogue: “It’s right for the aftermarket. It flows nicely and we’ve made a few statements which we think are important.

“It is not our policy to supply to van sales or the end user. There are people out there who want to supply to all levels, but we won’t. Our business has been built around supplying the motor factor and retail sales networks. That is what we do.”

While the business of rotating electrics is seasonal, it would be very wrong to think that a rotating company like Autoelectro is idle in the summer. Even so, the Bradford-based firm has put the extra time it has had in the warmer months to very good use.

Compared with CAT’s last visit around 18 months ago, the 35,000 square feet of workshop, warehouse and despatch area have been transformed.

Workhorse cleaning machines have a new lease of life, and every inch of the sprawling site is sparkling, rationalised and reordered. There’s new electronic picking, packaging machines, lighting, cladding and new UK Sales Manager, Nick Hood.

It’s fair to say that the company has remanufactured itself. It’s even got a new slogan – ‘Fit and Forget’ – and behind that there’s the ongoing work of taking in old core, making it as good as original equipment, or better, and sending out 100,000 units a year.

The three brothers of Nicky, Paul and Tony Bhogal run the firm and are proud that it’s the largest, independent British-owned reman company.

“Over the last 15 years there’s been massive consolidation in the market where some of the bigger nationals and internationals have pulled out of reman in the UK totally,” says Tony Bhogal.

“Some fell by the wayside and then other companies have looked at it and, because it’s a labour-intensive product, have decided it’s not cost-effective to do it here in the UK.

“What they don’t realise is they lose all of the knowledge and information of the market.”

And Autoelectro knows the UK very well – nowhere in Europe is there such a breadth of different makes and models.

“It’s a difficult market, it’s very diverse,” says Bhogal. “We recognise that and we concentrate on providing a full range of product. Anybody can provide the top 20 or 50 part numbers, it’s not very difficult.

“But then it’s having an alternator in for a Kia Sedona when nobody else has got it in stock.

“We’ve dug our heels in. We’ve consolidated our product here. We just don’t get caught out. Availablity is well over 99%. Most months it will be 100%, but then we might get caught out by something that’s slightly oddball.”

It has to be full-on oddball, too. The company has rotating parts for the Rolls Royce Phantom on its shelves, for instance, while a wander around the warehouse has the brothers pointing out Leyland core.

If something really is that strange then the most technical of the brothers, Paul, is given the job. Turnaround on these is a maximum of three days, normally two if they have the core on the shelf, but 99% of orders are sent out with free next day delivery on orders received up to 4:30.

The image of the industry is a bugbear for Bhogal: “A few years ago you had the professional remanufacturers and the local re-conditioners who were doing something between a full reman and a repair.

“Then you had the repair shops and after that the bodge it and paint brigade. Unfortunately that whole industry was clumped together.

“Now we’re finding that people are realising that remanufacturing is totally different, a highly technical process.”

That image work is ongoing and, for Autoelectro, includes its cherished ISO9001 quality management standard.

“We’re building up a reputation for remanufacturing, but building up a reputation for our brand in the market, too.”

Electronic ordering and AutoCat, MasterCat, TecCom, MAM and MMI also help to anchor remanufacturing in the 21st Century for Autelectro.Bhogal says MAM has allowed it to tap into the backend databases, while online ordering helps to get around misheard part numbers and streamline the pick process.

However, there’s still an education job to do with factors and technicians, some with labour-intensive, hands-on support work.

“In the past, certain factors didn’t want to sell rotating because it was a pain – they’d sell a unit and it would come back. Not because of a problem with the part, but because something else was wrong, or not fixed, and the alternator or starter would automatically get the blame.

“Vehicles are getting more complicated, but in some of the bigger garages starters and alternators are not seen as a difficult item and so they give it to one of the apprentices.

“They won’t be looking elsewhere. We put a big dayglo sticker on the box but you’d be surprised how often you see that information scrunched up and that nobody has paid attention to it.

Tony Bhogal

“We’re trying to get people to use our website more because there’s a lot of fitting advice there, too, but again it’s getting the technician to read it.

“We’re not trying to be bolshy or antagonistic about this, what we’re saying to our customers is to use the information, pass it on to the garage. That way you’re solving the garages problem.”

Getting it right the first time saves on returns and saves everybody money. Autoelectro has also given factors databases where they can check for issues, help get the job done and, hopefully, sell extra parts when needed, too.

Andy Varley, Customer Support Partner, has been in his role for a year now to help identify problems and, as an ex-technician, talk to factors and workshops on their level.

“And so,” says Tony Bhogal, “it goes back to our new strapline, Fit and Forget.”

The business is no stranger to CAT

Murray Silverman has a long history with the retail landscape and CAT – he’s featured on the cover of the magazine before with his business partner Les Millman as Ace Marketing.

The success of their Bury-based business, now called Streetwize, pours cold water on the scurrilous theory that appearing on the cover of our magazine is some kind of kiss of death.

The retail landscape has changed, yes, but Silverman and Millman have adapted with the times. Murray’s son Dale has joined the business along with Dave Davies, the four of them now pushing ahead with the ‘wize’ branding which can be adapted to different sectors as needed.

One of these new avenues is Leisurewize which Murray thinks has a bright future. He’s taken on John Townsend to head that drive: “He’s got a wealth of history. We’re not going into the leisure business with people who don’t know anything about it.”

The business has been sourcing from China for 12 years now, but over recent years the biggest increases in turnover have come from online activity, says Davis. He reckons online customers stand to benefit the most from leisure products as ‘it doesn’t cost a thing to put a picture online.’

One thing that Silverman wants to underline very clearly is that the company won’t sell direct to the public. Product can creep onto the likes of eBay or Amazon – Autoglym also has this problem – but Silverman says he does his best to police it.

The array of products on display in the company’s showroom is certainly impressive. There are 2000 different products available, a 60,000 sq ft warehouse and a big delivery for TK Maxx going on the day of our visit.

Over the summer Streetwize is going to look at retailers that do well with the leisure lines and we aim to report back on how it’s helped their business.

The Streetwize product cave

A lot of the time, however, Silverman says he can come up against a brick wall with customers who don’t want to try something new. This is particularly true of bigger chains: “You’ve got a product you know sells week on week, month on month. You’ve got all of the stats in the world and they won’t take it.

“All of us here have been in this business years and years longer than the graduate who’s just started. We can try and convince them, but it’s very frustrating.”

Silverman also thinks garages are missing a trick by not stocking a few items: “The impulse buy is there. Any garage that’s got space could do it, get a few products in. People are there, waiting, bored, for twenty minutes.” It’s certainly a tactic that works for Wilco…

The site is growing

The recent rapid growth of JRP Distribution in Lancing is down to a lot of legwork and having key people on the ground. Not just in Sussex, or the rest of the UK, but in China.

Getting supply from Asia is obviously nothing new, but JRP seems to have developed quite a knack with it. The business was formed in 1984 by Richard Page who was joined by his son Ollie in 2006. From the early days of selling batteries and chamois leathers from the boot of a car, the company now prides itself on its rapid flexibility in meeting direct-to-branch demands from the likes of Andrew Page, GSF and Camberley Auto Factors.

The first inroads into China were made in spring 2011, the first delivery was taken in early 2012 and now JRP has three permanent members of staff in China dealing with 18 factories.

“I’m going out to China every six months, but that’s going up to every three months, two weeks at a time,” says Ollie. “The way we’ve got it set up is quite unique. Most people will have a UK agent who then discusses with a Chinese agent or Chinese trading company which then goes to the factory.

“Speak to any Chinese factory and if they get approached by an agent or trading company, they’ll put their prices up ten to 15 percent straight away.

“We’ve got our own office, so there’s none of that.

“I went to some stands at the Canton fair, got some prices and then sent one of my Chinese girls there under an alias for the same products. They were 30 percent cheaper.

“I try to pick up a few words every time I go out there, but it’s a ridiculously difficult language. It’s like any country. If you can’t speak their language, you’re going to struggle in any negotiation.

“If you haven’t got a Chinese speaking person out there, you’ll get charged a lot more.”

Having the right people in the right place clearly pays dividends with a very competitive unit price for JRP. All of the quality control work is done in China, with one of the latest study running to 180 pages on a new line of wiper blades. JRP has taken four 40-foot containers of jump leads under its Simply brand, and more are coming. Space at the current warehouse is running out, so a new-build 12,000sqft warehouse over the road is joining the roster mid-2013.

Ollie is learning business lessons fast

“Nothing gets consolidated out there, everything comes direct,” says Ollie. “One of the other things we’ve set up with the factories as well is to give them a humongous order, they store it, and then we draw down containers at a time.

“With costs changing all the time, if we hit it at the right time, we can get a low cost and they store it for free.” It’s a far cry from the early days of what Richard calls his ‘lifestyle’ company with four employees concentrating only on the South East of England.

He says: “I was an agent prior to this and the problem at that time was there was no legislation protecting us. Once the business had been built up, they could come in, say ‘thanks very much’, and send you on your way.

“So I took on Philips batteries that I sold out of the back of the car and some chamois leathers and it kind of developed from there. For the first few years I did part agency and part the products which I had at home.”

JRP took on Pacer adhesives in 2001, just as the Dollar exchange rate bit, but it bought the company a big customer list and suddenly they were a national player. Could Richard imagine back then where JRP would be today? “Definitely not, no. Years ago I imported from Italy and Germany. America was a big deal for me. Ollie’s got a different take on it and has managed to find lots of niches. Put those niches together you have a very attractive package.”

Ollie adds: “It also means that we’re not attacking one competitor at any one time, which would be suicidal. I don’t think many people could keep up with our range development.” By the end of next year, 75 to 80 percent of JRP’s lines will be coming from China, Taiwan or elsewhere in Asia. Being a family business Ollie was brought into work as a child at weekends and in the holidays and put to work by Richard. “I did those annoying blister packs that took about ten minutes to do and he only gave me 2p a pack.”

It seems Ollie learnt an early lesson the company is now benefiting from.

The forecourt is busy and varied

The forecourt of Broad Lane Garage is varied and busy. Modern vehicles with their bonnets open jostle for attention next to a series of classic cars awaiting restoration work. Under some tarpaulin in one corner of the site sits a 1930 Ford Model A and a 1936 Ford V8 stock car – both in need of some serious love to bring them back to life.

Hobbies, restoration work and modern servicing and repair all collide at Broad Lane Garage. Its fantastic corner location gives it prominence by the roadside, and it’s the site which has kept the business at the same place since it opened in 1961. Managing Director Mike Scotney’s father started the business and still occasionally works at the shop.

This is truly a family business. As well as Mike’s father there’s also his mother, his sister and his son all helping out. While Mike admits working with his family can be tough, it’s also taught him some useful business skills. The family nature of the business means that Broad Lane Garage has good staff retention, so good in fact that some technicians have left the business to seek apparently greener pastures only to find themselves returning months later.

Broad Lane seems to be a member of just about every garage scheme going. While Mike says they all serve a purpose, the Good Garage Scheme is the one that’s bringing home the bacon: “It’s been good for us. We see an increase in sales when they do their marketing.

Mike also takes on restoration projects

“I can understand why people do get upset about having to use the Forté products. I was happy with it anyway and I was using it. I don’t think it’s overpriced, and it seems to do what it says on the tin. You can see the difference with our long-term customers.”

Even though Motor Codes now has the gravitas of OFT approved status, Mike still thinks it’s lagging behind in consumer awareness: “I would say the general public are not as au fait with it as they are with the Good Garage Scheme. There are several issues because there are so many different schemes out there.”

While restorations might only count for five percent of his total turnover, Mike says doing that kind of work means there’s always something to do when the MOT or servicing jobs dry up: “It means there’s always work there. Most of the people who are having that sort of work done aren’t on a tight timescale. It means we always have something to turn our hands to.”

Of course, when work does slow down there’s also the opportunity to train, something Mike wants to do more of: “We don’t spend as much as I’d like to on training. My biggest bugbear is that you have to travel so far to get it, so you don’t just have the daily cost of training you also have to get overnight accommodation.

“I don’t think the local colleges are doing enough. I think they should be concentrating more on giving students the underlying technology training. Technicians today have got to be IT proficient, and I don’t think the training we have at the moment is enough. The guys we have are pretty good, but even at my age I’m still learning, and I go to courses.”

Business Owner Mike Scotney

Broad Lane has developed considerably over the years from the initial plans. It now encompasses a full bodyshop and paint spraying room alongside four workshop bays.

Expansion in the future is limited, however, by legality. The site is leasehold and has been since the garage first opened. Mike has been trying to secure full ownership of the space for a number of years without success. Until he does that, he’s limited in what else can be done to expand the business.

“If it was our own site, we would have bigger workshops and an automatic test lane. We’d get a better roof height too. We could change the layout at the moment but it’s just not cost effective. We’re on quite a tight lease.”

The award was presented at Haymarket's Teddington offices

CAT Magazine has received an award from the motor industry charity BEN in recognition for its support over the last year.

CAT Editor Peter Lawton, Publisher David Harris, Sales Executive Don Rupal and Reporter Darren Moss were presented with the award by Amanda Clements and Kirsten Galvin of BEN. The charity is giving a number of awards to the people, businesses and organisations which have supported it over the past year.

Peter Lawton said: “The CAT team is honoured and humbled to be recognised with this award. Compared with the huge amount of work done by BEN, CAT has barely scratched the surface with its support of this great automotive charity. We’ll back BEN through 2013 and beyond so that it can continue supporting industry workers and their families.”

To find out more about BEN and the work they do, visit http://www.ben.org.uk/

iAuto is hoping to go nationwide

Three years ago Andy Fox lived in London working in IT recruitment. Today he operates the successful iAutoUK garage in Coventry and wants to franchise the name across the country. With a target of over 25 garage franchises within the next five years, he’s got a long road ahead.

“I had this eureka moment on the tube,” says Andy, “and I remember looking at a chap sitting down who just looked so depressed with life. I thought that if I didn’t get out, I was going to end up like that. My mother becoming ill was the catalyst, so we moved back up here.”

Andy began to buy and sell cars with a friend. His first sale was a red VW Golf with no power steering and a lot of rust. He bought it for £400, selling it a week later for £1400. He did exactly the same the week after: “I did that for a while and we were successful, and that’s what raised my awareness of German brands and the market.

“In 2009 we decided to open this place. I knew about the block exemption rules having spoken to customers, so I thought it was a big opportunity.”

iAuto was born as a German marques specialist, and quickly began converting customers from what had been a main dealer dominated market. Andy says that 80 percent of his customers are direct converts from the main dealer. iAutoUK has been so successful in fact that a number of other German car specialists have opened up nearby.

The business grew quickly: “We were advertising heavily, we would literally put our business cards under the wipers of every German car we could find. No matter where you were you would leave a leaflet or a card with someone. That grass-roots effort was hard work, but it began to pay off.

“We made a point of trying to talk to customers about where they worked and whether there was a chance of getting in with that company. We talked to them about it and would leave cards on notice boards, that sort of thing.”

Andy has big plans for the chain

A support deal with Andrew Page to provide training and equipment to franchisees, as well as giving iAutoUK tip-offs about possible expansion points should provide ample growth for this business in the future. Andy stresses the deal doesn’t give Page a monopoly over his business, however, and certainly not over his parts supply.

Andy’s wife and business partner Melissa also came from an IT background. She immediately leapt on the idea of offering a better service to the female market. Joining the Foxy car scheme was a handy tie-in for the business: “I like cars and always have done, but I used to feel intimidated going to a garage. I would pay money without knowing what it was for. Women should feel comfortable when coming to a garage.

“A £20 referral scheme has worked especially well for women because we take these things into account. It’s important that all garages understand that the female market is huge, and if you get it wrong, it’s a big market that you’ll be missing out on.”

The IT background of both Andy and Melissa has played a large part in their company strategy. iAutoUK uses social media and online networking to bring in new business, and existing customers can earn themselves £20 credit for recommending a friend. Andy’s reasoning is simple: “If your customers use it, you need to use it. There’s no excuses anymore.”

For prospective franchisees, Andy says his business contacts can take away a large part of the hassle: “What we would bring to the table would be a lot of business support; there are people who we work with who can provide marketing, IT, PR and more. The great thing about being a franchise is that it’s very much in my interests to make the business successful. If they make money, I make money.”

Revolution Motorstore

This year marks the 15^th anniversary for performance specialist Revolution Motorstore. The outfit won our Retailer of the Year Award in 2010, but in truth it’s a mix of heady Halfords parts and busy tuning shop.

Last September Revolution lost the ability to take orders on its old website when the company which provided it went into administration. There’s a spanking new site now, developed locally, and despite the pause in e-sales, and an overall decline in the performance market, the husband and wife team of Glenn and Lisa Campbell have thrived.

Adapting to new markets, new customers and new demands means turnover increased 8.5 percent last year and is up 11 percent so far in 2012.

In it’s first day online the new site took double the amount of orders that the old site would do, and Glenn says Revolution is also getting ten to 15 enquiries through its Facebook page which now has 6500 likes.

“The old site was very black, very dark with white text,” says Glenn. “Now it’s white, clear easier on the eye. It’s got a lot of dropdowns and is really easy to get around. It’s fantastic now.

“We’ve lost some day-to-day customers. It was last September that the checkout ended. The website was all there, but you couldn’t press the buy button.

The workshop is busy too

“It’s amazing how many loyal customers we’ve kept from the old site, though.”

Developed at the cost of £50,000, the site is as slick as the store and gives visitors numerous ways to search the tens of thousands of parts online. This online range will double by the end of the year as braking, tyres, exhaust and suspension is added to the mix.

At the moment Glenn says about 40 percent of sales are online but that this will shift to 60 percent in the next couple of years, perhaps more. As well as revolution247.com, Glenn has registered a host of other domain names, like justsubaru.com, to catch specific customers and offer them a narrowed down range.

Japanese brands have done brisk trade for Glenn in the past, and he’s hoping to drum up some more exposure for Revolution with a heavily modified 1100kg, 500bhp Subaru that the firm has been building. The aim is to beat the 7:55 Nordschleife Subaru lap record, currently held by Tommi Mäkinen, on October 6.

“I do a lot of track days and take customers out on flying laps, but this is a bit serious so we’ve hired Charlie Kaufman, a GT3 driver. He’s done about 30,000 laps of the Nurburgring.

The retail front is clean and orderly

“If we break the lap record we’ll build ten of the cars, all with numbered plaques.

“It will be £40,000 plus the donor car which are going for between £6000 and £10,000. It’s pretty amazing, we’ve got to smash it.

“People are sticking with French, but a lot of Japanese drivers have moved over to Germany with the better build quality.

“There’s a huge scene in German marques, it’s massive, the biggest growth we’ve seen on the last 12 months – Audi RS4, Golfs, E46 BMWs.

“They’re very switched on, it only ever seems to be real modifications. They won’t do sticky-on bits, only exhausts, manifolds, high-flow cats, camshaft work. I’m very impressed by the level of detail they expect from us.

“It needs to have a friendly feel. You might walk into a shop for a TV and pay £499, job done, but there’s got to be more than that with us, there’s got to be a reason to come back.

“We’re also looking to expand – more workshop space would be fantastic. We’re looking to get more servicing products which has a cracking margin.

Glenn Campbell

“That’s probably part of the business we develop more – general workshop services. That’s probably a weakness of the business. We should get the calls for servicing work in the first place rather than chase it.

“If we get that workshop we can release a bit of space in the shop, put in a nice little café upstairs. We’ve already got a breakfast bar by the windows so you can watch the workshop and a little waiting area, with tv, magazines, free coffee and so on, but you could do that little bit extra couldn’t you?”