Dropped in to my local air cooled specialist yesterday to find them clearing the unit out, another victim of this recession. Outermotive, based in Warwick have been a great help and support in our 1st year with our van. Like many in this market Colin is an enthusiast that managed to make a business out of his passion, such a shame when this sort of thing happens.
Oh no. There is still M Restorations in your area - they're now based in the centre of Warwick, with their hire business (Bounce Rentals) there too. Paul has sorted out my van on numerous occasions, including saving me from my own cock ups!
I don't like hearing this sort of news. I know how hard it is to run a business and how hard those guys must have worked to save it and how they must be feeling right now. So many people and their families get effected by this sort of thing. Are there anymore general mechanic aircooled / T2 bus specialists left in the Midlands / Warwickshire? Who are you going to use now?
I doubt it's the recession. I expect he's just too honest and helpful. This is the wrong business for an enthusiast.
He had a pretty decent size operation, always busy with plenty of repeat business. I don't know all the details but he wasn't helped out by his landlord, last year he didn't pay the mortgage on the large unit on the site even though Outermotive had been paying their rent and it was repossessed. That meant the rental business had to go and everything had to be done from the workshop. A few weeks ago the electricity was cut off for 10 days as the landlord had not paid a disputed bill so they could only do about 30% of their normal work. Cash flow drys up, the banks aren't sympathetic and bang goes your business.
We had our bus booked in next monday for some work, since the phone wasnt answered, Trudy went down today and found what looked like a receiver sorting through the empty workshop. Very sad!
Ok Cheers, keep us locals in the loop, good luck Colin, hope you get going again soon, we have a lot of rust to fix!
