Shropshire garage voted best in the Midlands
A Shropshire garage has beaten off hundreds of competitors to be voted the ‘Garage of the Year’ Midlands region in the Motor Codes annual competition.
Church Road Garage is a family run business, which has been situated in Baschurch for 27 years. This March, the garage was notified by Motor Codes, the self regulating body for the motor industry, that it had been nominated by its customers to the competition and were one of the top 100 garages in the whole country.
The garage was put through to the regional stages and voting by the public continued. Last week Mr Smith was told his business had been named Midlands Garage of the Year – beating the other four independents in the category. This also makes it one of the top 10 small garages nationwide.
Mr Smith, who has been in the motor industry for more than 40 years, said he was “ecstatic” that the garage had won the accolade.
He said: “The reason we are so pleased is that this has all been achieved thanks to our customers, who have taken time out to vote for us. Some of the comments sent in with the voting have given us a really warm feeling. We had over 100 customer comments sent in and I don’t know how many votes.
“Having put a lot of effort into what we believe is providing a quality service to our customers, it’s really nice and comforting to get this positive feedback. It endorses that we are going in the right direction.”
Nine people work at Church Road Garage, including Mr Smith’s daughter Jess, 18, and father-in-law David Alley, 66. Mr Smith has taken on mechanics, from all over the county - many as apprentices and helped train them up. They include Andy Pritchard, 43, from Shrewsbury, who has been at the garage for more than 20 years. Andrew Jones, of Whitchurch, is the currently the youngest apprentice, aged 17. He works alongside mechanics John Cowles, 27 of Ruyton XI Towns, Charlie Willock, 20 of Weston Lullingfields, Laurie Bridle, 19 of Shrewsbury and Ian Phillips, 29 of Baschurch. Doris the Great Dane is also affectionately known as ‘head of security’.
Among its other good deeds, the garage aims to be as eco-friendly as possible. All of the light bulbs have been changed to LED, which use 70 per cent less electricity. Solar panels have been installed on the roof, providing almost all of the garage’s yearly electricity, and 90 per cent of all waste produced is recycled, including tyres, batteries and scrap metal.
This week, an RAC inspector came out to scrutinize the garage for the final stage of the competition. He checked all the paperwork, prices and estimates, payment methods and that the garage adhered to all manufacturers’ recommendations. He also preformed spot checks on work completed on two vehicles.
The report, along with all the comments and votes, will now go to the judges for the final stage of the competition to see which business will be crowned national garage of the year on May 14.
Mr Smith added: “We are thrilled to have got this far. The Midlands region covers Cheshire, Herefordshire, all of Birmingham and Coventry and as far as Northamptonshire so is very densely populated by garages. It’s not because of me that we have won this title - it’s the recognition of all the staff by the customers. I think the future for the local business is looking very, very good.”
