Aftermarket March 2022

I n a crowded marketplace, you need to stand out if you want to make your mark. In Essex there are hundreds of garages, and every single one will be some kind of Ford expert. How do you claim your own territory in this situation? For Ben Thompson, owner at A1 Autocentre, the secret was to emigrate to Australia and become a hairdresser. No, really: “I was a celebrity hairdresser in Australia. I did the hair for many famous people. The Pussycat Dolls, James Blunt, Micha Barton, those on The X-Factor to name a few. I got into hairdressing so I could move to Australia. It was the second highest priority job wanted by Australian immigration at the time.” However, meeting his future wife, and the pull of the garage back in the UK ultimately brought him back: “I met my wife through my dad, she came into the garage for a MOT, but left with a future husband. It started off as a long- distance relationship. When I secured my Australian citizenship, I came back to the UK and that’s when my garage story got going.” Successful We need to rewind a bit from Ben landing back at Heathrow with his scissors in one pocket, and spanner in 54 AFTERMARKET MARCH 2022 GARAGE VISIT www.aftermarketonline.net Aftermarket blasts into Essex to see how A1 Autocentre is looking to further highlight its place in the local market GRADE ONE AND A LITTLE OFF THE TOP the other. Let’s discuss the beginnings of A1 Autocentre. “It was started by my dad, Mike in 2008,” explained Ben. “He had a garage that was really successful in Ilford, sold it and started looking around for another site. He then came across the premises in Dagenham and set it up from there. At that point we only had the one site. A1 in Dagenham has grown so quickly it now has two buildings next door to each other, one is the MOT site and the other is the workshop site. “When my dad had it there were two MOT bays and two workshop bays in the single building. When I moved back from Australia, me and my brother Sam took it from there. We were getting busier and busier, and when the building next door became available, we took that as well. With the Dagenham branch at full capacity, we decided to look around for a second site and we came across a smaller building in the heart of South Ockenden.” Ben opened that as Ockenden Test Centre three years ago, but he has recently rebranded it as A1 Autocentre Ockendon, and now has the makings of a chain: “I have only just changed Ockenden Test Centre to A1 Autocentre in the last two weeks. It makes it all a lot easier when we need to send one of our customers from Ockendon to our bigger branch in Dagenham; It is the same name and