Aftermarket April 2022

W ould you have picked mid-2020 as the perfect time to open a business? Connor Blanning and Mark Nelson must have been braver than some when they started CM Automotive, but with a win in Top Garage 2020 under their belts when they had only just passed their first anniversary, they must be doing something right. The business is based on a trading estate a short distance from the centre of Bristol. Inside the small facility the pair have managed to squeeze in a two-bay workshop. “We have two ramps,” explained co-founder Connor Blanning, “and a store room in the back as well. A lot of our equipment is kept in there, out of the way. It’s not a massive set-up, and ideally we would like something a bit bigger and better, but it works for us at the moment.” On how the pair came together, and came up with the idea of going into business, Connor observed: “We both worked for Honda for a number of years. That is how we 56 AFTERMARKET APRIL 2022 GARAGE VISIT www.aftermarketonline.net CM Automotive in Bristol was one of the winners in Top Garage 2021, so we popped in to see what got them over the line SMALL BUT PERFECTLY FORMED know each other, and we decided we could do it ourselves.” Reliable On their current facility, Connor observed: “I was searching the internet for premises, as they are quite rare in Bristol and hard to come by, especially in the motor trade. I found this garage, and sent it over to Mark. It turned out that Mark used to work with the business owner. He was from Spain and was looking to move back home. We found the site in the February, and then COVID-19 came in, and the first lockdown. This put a spanner in the works for him with regards to moving. Later, when things began to open up and people were going back to work, it was still available. We said we would have it, and we signed the deal. That was June. We then got the keys.” The pair started with a small pool of customers they could port over. “The Honda brand is very reliable, they don’t tend to go too far wrong. We do tend to see a lot Above: Mark Nelson and Connor Blanning