Keith McGowan has been a ChipsAway franchisee since 2001. Since then, he has developed a 3rd generation workshop, occupies the largest ChipsAway Car Care Centre in the UK and is turning over an inspiring £1million per year.
Keith’s background is in the motoring industry, as he grew up in the body shop industry within a family business. He was therefore already aware of the strength of the ChipsAway brand, and our reputation for producing high quality minor paintwork repairs. When he initially saw an ad in a franchise magazine, this is what attracted him to the business.
“Having grown up in a family business in the body shop industry, I could see that the traditional body shop model was broken and we needed to do something different.”
Keith was extremely impressed upon attending an open day at ChipsAway head office, and knew that this was the right franchise for him.
“My business grew very quickly” Keith continues “I started off as a man in a van, and after 6 months I took on my first employee and we opened the workshop, the following January I took on another employee, and the business has snowballed from there.” After a lot of hard work and many years of determination, Keith now operates the biggest Car Care centre in the UK.
“When you own your own business, you need to have a clear vision of who you want to be and where you want to go. I have always had a clear vision of what I wanted my Car Care Centre to look like. When I first opened my car care centre, I didn’t think it was the best that it could be and I wanted to improve the customer experience. With a clear vision, I have been able to achieve my goals.”
“We are always looking for more opportunities. For example, if we are working on a car for a company, we want to find out if there are any more cars that we can repair for them. “
Keith has recently re-positioned his Car Care Centre so he is in a convenient location for customers. “Location is key – we are now located on a main road, with 3 motorways within half a mile. Although ChipsAway is a strong, trusted brand that people will search out, to put this recognised brand right in front of them has drawn in a huge number of customers. We want to improve customer experience and this makes the ChipsAway process far more convenient for the customer.”
If Keith’s story has sparked your interest, come and join us on one of our regular, informal open days, where you can meet the team, experience the exciting ChipsAway system first hand and chat with existing Franchisees. Call 0800 731 6914 or enquire here to book your place.
