Although ChipsAway’s most ‘famous’ franchisees, Tony Blair and Paul Smith started their franchise operations separately from one another, on a mobile basis, they have now joined forces and run a highly successful CarCare Centre business in partnership with each other. Not only that, but Paul’s daughter, Nina, will be training next month in preparation of joining the pair, to help them keep up with rocketing demand!
Tony has always been self-employed and enjoys the flexible lifestyle it enables him to achieve, but Paul had worked in IT for more than 20 years, before taking the leap into being his own boss. He had always enjoyed cars and often dreamt about running his own high end valeting company, so when the opportunity arose to leave his previous career and take voluntary redundancy, he started looking around in more depth and soon discovered ChipsAway, the UK’s leading minor automotive repair franchise, and knew it was the one for him!
Click here to request more information on ChipsAway“I decided painting cars sounded much more satisfying and challenging and, almost 15 years later, I can definitely say I made the right choice – I love it,” exclaims Paul, the guys both operated as neighbouring mobile franchisees initially. A few years after joining, Tony moved into a CarCare Centre and he would share any mobile jobs with Paul, while Tony benefitted from the larger repairs that Paul couldn’t complete on a mobile basis. It was a great partnership, and five years ago they took the next step and opened up a larger CarCare Centre operation together, which couldn’t be going better.
“We really enjoy working together and now the majority of our work comes from repeat custom and referrals, which is fantastic,” comments Tony. “We both hugely appreciate the support and camaraderie of being part of a larger network, while being our own bosses and running things the way we want to. We also benefit from a wealth of support and advice the guys at head office are able to give, not to mention lots of new business leads as a result of the national advertising done on our behalf – we couldn’t be happier!”