Pastures New

After what seems to be months looking for new premises we have finally secured a new workshop. Over the course of our first year we soon out grew our little workshop near Popham. Apart from not having enough space to swing a cat the surroundings didn’t fit with what we were trying to achieve. Despite what we were producing I was mindful that potential customers may be put if they visited.

knowing that we needed to move we all set about trying to find somewhere suitable. Belinda spent days phoning and visiting farmers and I signed up with some of the local commercial estate agents. A number of places came up but they were either too far away, too expensive or the landlords wouldn’t accept tenants in the motor trade.

When it seemed like we were never going to find somewhere and when we were all pretty much resigned to the fact that things weren’t going in our favour something unexpected came up. Whilst visiting our leather man Paul at his new premises we realised that the estate he was set up on was really quite nice and had a mixed community of hard working businesses.

Belinda worked her charm with the landlord, a fantastic chap called Frank but unfortunately there was a waiting list on industrial units so we didn’t really give it a second thought. One week later however, we got a very welcome call saying that a free unit had come up and it was ours if we were still interested. We immediately said yes and started making plans for the move.

A couple weeks on and we were moving all our stuff up the road to its new home in the lovely village of Little London in the Hampshire countryside. It really is surprising to see how much we had managed to squeeze in such a small space. I have to say the past few weeks have been absolutely bonkers and we are grateful for the help we received from Dave P and the understanding of our customers who have had to wait for us while we moved in.

There is still plenty of work to be done but we are pleased and proud to say that we are up and running and open for business. We have a dedicated stores area, an office with kitchen and ample space to work and store our cars. Visitors will now be able to see our demonstrators and go over the cars that are currently under construction.

Looking back now, I didn’t realise how stressful the old working environment had become. I now roll up the electric shutter in the morning and look out over the fields. The smell from the bakery two doors down wafts in through the door and the gentle hum of the brewing equipment in the unit next door can be heard in the distance. We are met every morning by Frank and Max who run the farm and they start the day by asking if we need anything or if they can be of assistance with anything. We have fallen on our feet and we look to a really happy future.

I will post some photos as we go along and when things are done we’ll get the magazines down for a visit.

once again, thank you for all the help and support we have received.