Working on the body of success

In 1992, when Darryl Wakeham rented a small industrial unit in Lifton and set up his self-employed business to do vehicle bodywork repairs, he didn’t appreciate how successful the business would be.

Nor did he realise that one day he would have a son working alongside him and his wife, Theresa, to continue expanding and growing the Autospray business.

From small beginnings to purpose-built premises

Darryl realised its potential within a couple of years of starting the business. Their growing customer base flocked to Autospray because of their superb reputation for doing a quality job. With Theresa helping with the bookkeeping and admin side of the business, they took a massive leap of faith. They bought a large industrial unit on the Tinhay Industrial Estate in Lifton, close to the A30 on the Devon and Cornwall border. It was the best decision they could have made.

They took on more employees, expanded their workshop and started tendering for larger contracts. In 1995, they secured an NHS contract to handle the bodywork repairs for locally based NHS vehicles. Over the years, the NHS contract has been renewed continually, and the geographical area has been expanded to cover NHS vehicles throughout Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and parts of Bristol.

Doubling in size, with more to come

Darryl and Theresa are still heavily involved in running the business. Darryl focuses on doing estimates and checking vehicle body repairs have been carried out correctly, and Theresa focuses on the admin and bookkeeping side while running the reception desk. They now have 15 full and part-time employees. As well as the NHS vehicle contracts, they also do insurance related bodywork on domestic vehicles and some fleet vehicles. It is this latter part of the business that their son Simon is keen to develop.

Simon has been involved with the business for over eight years. Having trained as a mechanic, he started working at Autospray in the body shop, getting hands-on experience repairing vehicle bodywork to a high standard. He now works alongside his parents to run the business, and he manages the team responsible for the insurance based repairs.

His parents have welcomed his drive and ambition to develop this successful business further. Simon’s plans have already made a significant impact, with the workshop facilities doubling in size and the number of employees also doubling to cope with the additional insurance work he has secured. This is an area which Simon and his parents are keen to develop over the coming years.

There are plans to expand the Lifton premises to handle the increased workload, refurbish the existing workshops and spruce up the reception area for customers.

Gearing for growth with the right advice

Haines Watts’ involvement with Autospray has developed over the years, from preparing accounts to carrying out payroll and VAT duties. More recently, this has been extended to business restructuring, pensions and tax planning advice to help secure the business’s future.

It has been great to have Haines Watts supporting us. Their advice has been invaluable in helping us to make key decisions which will enable the business to expand. They are accountants who focus on the future, not just the short term, and this has given us the confidence to press ahead with our plans, which will benefit the whole family. - Simon