Summary of Operation
With more than 17 years of experience, ChipsAway is one of the most successful automotive franchises in the UK, and also a brand leader of the automotive paintwork repair market. Operating from fully equipped mobile workshops and CarCare Centres, ChipsAway specialists provide high quality, on-the-spot repairs to minor car bodywork damage, quickly and cost-effectively.
Initial investment required £29,995 + VAT
Although Andy Cornell only launched his ChipsAway franchise in July last year, he’s already planning to expand it. He says he’s been busy since day one of launching his business, and is frequently fully booked four weeks ahead.
“I’m absolutely thrilled with the way my new business is going,” says Andy, a former Sales and Marketing Director. “I’d always had a dream of running my own business, and the increasingly tough times in the print industry, where I worked previously, persuaded me to take the leap now rather than seek another job and possibly face redundancy again.”
Andy already knew a ChipsAway franchise owner and had also had ChipsAway repair his own car, so the automotive paintwork repair brand seemed a pretty good place to start. He had experienced the high quality of the ChipsAway service and understood the earnings potential and opportunity for expansion the franchise offered.
However, before contacting ChipsAway, he took time to research into a variety of alternative options, from food to retail as well as other automotive franchises, but finally decided that joining ChipsAway was the right move for him.
“I wanted something flexible, that was not massively expensive and which had the potential for growth,” he explains. “ChipsAway seemed to fit the bill and has proved to be everything I’d hoped for. It does what it says on the tin and if you follow the business model you can’t go wrong!”
According to Andy, the training and support he has received has been superb and he says his professionally organised launch weekend couldn’t have gone any better.
“I’ve been busy since my first day and I haven’t stopped since,” Andy confirms. “I earned very good money as a company director and I calculate that within 12 months I will be making at least the same money, with potential to earn considerably more. Now all I need to decide is which will be the best way forward for me – whether to expand through the mobile route and invest in more vehicles and a team of staff, or instead open a ChipsAway CarCare Centre (fixed base workshop). I’ve had terrific support from ChipsAway from the outset and I know that whichever option I choose, I can count on the experience, enthusiasm and advice of the management team to help me build my business and achieve the long-term success I’m aiming for.”
ChipsAway is the UK’s leading vehicle paintwork repair franchise with around 350 specialists in operation nationwide, as well as a network of Master Franchise Owners overseas.
Based on unique technology, the ChipsAway system continues to dominate in the ‘on-the-spot’ repairs sector, removing scratches, bumper scuffs and alloy wheel damage on a same day basis, and usually at a fraction of the price of traditional body shop repair methods. Franchise owners operate from professionally liveried ChipsAway vehicles, customised into fully equipped mobile workshops, with the opportunity to expand rapidly into a major management franchise with multiple vehicles, territories and CarCare Centres.
With more than 34 million vehicles on the road and up to 22 million minor damage repair opportunities every year, ChipsAway estimates that currently it serves only three per cent of its potential marketplace.
Written by Megan Dunmore