A little more background…

The business started in 1976, when Fred Smith, followed on from his vehicle repair apprenticeship and experience in London and Kent working in the motor trade, and took his initiative to start his own business and repair cars from his parents’ home, in a small garage in Northfleet, Kent.

Fred’s business gradually grew and he was able to afford to rent a workshop and porter cabin office in Vale Road, Northfleet, where he employed a few staff and built a firm reputation amongst small businesses in the area, with lots of hard work the business continued to thrive for about 16 years.

During the time at Vale Road, Peter Hartup joined the team starting as an apprentice at the age of 16 in 1978, he started by making tea and sweeping up, eventually moving on to learn panel beating, and paint spraying techniques and becoming an expert in vehicle repair. In the later years at Vale Road, Fred and Peter (now both managing directors) started to receive work from some insurance companies and started the plan to expand the business to the next level.

In 1994 Fred & Peter, and a loyal team of employees moved the business to its present location at Imperial Business Park, Gravesend. Technology also advancing meant that to keep up, the introduction of a computerised bodyshop management system, a computerised estimating system and also computerised accounts/payroll was seen.

During the last 20 years at Imperial Business Park, Fred’s daughter Charlotte and son Ben have joined the business, taking valuable lessons in business from Fred & Peter and learning the ropes. More space has been acquired as the business has been steadily expanded.

Today at the time of writing, we now operate from 5 industrial units, running 3 full time recovery vehicles, a fleet of around 40 courtesy vehicles and we employ over 50 staff.

Ben and Charlotte now run the bodyshop and day to day responsibilities of the business, bringing fresh drive and ambition, into the general management – with Fred and Peter still actively working on site, managing specific departments and offering an open door policy to the team, working together to maintain a successful business.