Garage scheme overcomes delays
An award-winning West Bromwich family garage has finally completed a new £200,000 workshop after being caught in a planning dilemma for eight years.
Ferdotti Motor Services on the Lyng industrial estate purchased its development plot in 2007. But within months of the deal, the garage and its industrial neighbours were being offered between £1m and £1.3m per acre for homes development under a compulsory purchase order scheme.
Sandwell Council's Development Framework Plans had earmarked the 22-acre zone for housing ahead of the catastrophic property slump the following year.
Property developers lost heart in the brownfield site and Ferdotti's 4,000 sq ft expansion plans, next to its site at Pleasant Street, were left in limbo.
Director Tim Guidotti said: "Initially we didn't know what to do. The local authority was – and still is – committed to the same social improvement that has been seen in the town, but there is currently no appetite for independent investment here.
"By 2012 I'd had enough of the delays and took the plunge to develop the former bronze foundry we had purchased.
"Due to the growth in business, at time we'd had to use a temporary canopy for extra workspace," he added.
After paying £15,000 to remove waste from the 100-year-old factory, Tim site-managed the development himself.It is equipped with mobile column lifts for fixed wheelbase trucks up to 28 tonnes, two additional 5-tonne commercial vehicle ramps and five work bays as well as integral offices, the new workshop with its integral offices, is an airy, light and modern unit. Completion means the business, primarily known for its fleet servicing, will have capacity to expand its domestic market and develop its servicing of new generation hybrid vehicles.
Last year the garage won a customer service award for a fourth consecutive year at ARI Fleet UK's annual Masterserve Network Awards.
The award recognises superior customer service in the commercial vehicle fleet management industry.
Ferdotti beat 600 other garages in the network to land the Going the Extra Mile Award. ARI is one of the largest fleet management operators in the world.
"We have a proven track record for quality work and customer service with four awards year on year for customer service and one for outstanding quality," said Tim. "We not only want to service or repair vehicles, we want to build relationships, trust and hopefully loyalty."
His father, Joe Guidotti, founded Ferdotti Motors in 1977 and it has since grown to become one of the largest independent garages in the West Midlands, with a second site at Birmingham Airport.
