Successful property developers for over 15 years, Steve and Anne Martin decided to change direction completely in 2009 and after considering various options, invested in a ChipsAway franchise. Since then, their business has continued to grow at an impressive rate. Within months of their franchise launch the couple took on an employee to help them with their rapidly expanding workload and in their first year they achieved a turnover in excess of £150,000. Subsequently, Steve and Anne opened a ChipsAway CarCare Centre (a fixed base workshop), enabling them to process even more vehicles and provide better than ever service to customers. By the end of year two, their annual turnover had increased to £200,000.

According to Anne, their plans for 2012 include opening a second CarCare Centre and recruiting another team of technicians. “Our target is to achieve a quarter of a million pound turnover for year three, however that figure is based on our current situation operating just one CarCare Centre. Obviously, our expectations for the business will be substantially higher once we open our second.”

Anne concludes, “We're always busy and we certainly believe there’s plenty of potential work out there to sustain our plans for growth. ChipsAway has given us brilliant support and the opportunity to grow our ‘man and a van’ operation into a long term, successful management franchise.”

ChipsAway is one of the most successful automotive franchises in the UK with around 350 specialists operating nationwide, providing high quality on-the-spot repairs to minor car bodywork damage, restoring paintwork quickly and cost-effectively.