entrepreneurs 33


Pictures by Angus Thomas


How would you describe yourself? As driven but not ruthless. When I joined the RAC, the number of customers using their roadside service had been in decline for about seven years, but within three months we reversed the decline and in just over a year took the number of individual customers from two million to about four million. We had a huge celebration.


I also have a competitive spirit. When I arrived, the parent company had already engaged a number of advisers, including a cultural change consultant to help align the values and objectives of the business. I told my boss that was what I would be doing, so we agreed the consultant would come back a few weeks later. There were 10,000 people in the organisation and I went on roadshows, spoke to every colleague at group meetings and made it my job to communicate. When the consultant returned, he could see


the changes – if someone says you can’t do something commercially and I know I can, I will go to the nth degree to make it happen.


Having been so successful, what prompted you to start again?


I had promised myself that when I reached 50, I would do something completely different and leave the large corporate world. I took some non- exec director type roles, made some investments in some small private companies and enjoyed providing mentoring advice to help them grow and succeed.


I had a longstanding desire to own my own business though and I didn’t want to hang up my boots without doing so. I was fortunate to be able to buy into five Vauxhall dealerships which Inchcape was selling because they were no longer part of the core business, and from there started Eden Motor Group.


You’re very much a people person


Yes, I passionately believe in taking time to get to know people and I genuinely get my energy from my colleagues. My business meetings always used to overrun because I was talking to people – it took two PAs to keep me focused.


We have about 500 people and I take very seriously the fact that I am responsible for making sure they can be paid every month. I still love employing young people at the start of their careers but I also really value our older colleagues – we have a great spread of ages from 16–77 years old.


What are your future ambitions?


One is to live up to our strapline “A better world of motoring”, that’s the lifeblood of my ambition for the business – to prove to ourselves, to our customers and manufacturers that we can deliver excellence and market share. We always hit our targets and we do it in six days, not seven because we don’t open on Sundays. I think generally


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – OCTOBER 2014


speaking, customers get a poor service on Sundays, I won’t open if there isn’t a responsible manager on site who can take decisions and, as someone whose faith is important to me, I think it’s right that we should have Sundays as a day off.


Secondly, I don’t have any aspirations to run a mega company, if I had, I would have stayed in a plc. For me, what’s important is a culture where I know everyone, speak to everyone and they know me. It’s about names not numbers and we want to provide the level of quality and service commensurate with a specialist brand, while providing a competitive product.


I’ve been told that “never satisfied” is my middle name – I prefer to think of it as having a healthy discontent with the status quo.


Your charity work is also very important to you


Yes, the industry has been very good to me and I’m very socially conscious about the need to give support and help to those less fortunate, which is why I’m involved with BEN, which is a charity for those who work, or have worked, in the automotive and related industries, as well as their dependants.


What do you do on your time off?


My father was always a Sunderland supporter and although he’s no longer with us, we keep two family season tickets so still I manage to go to some games. Closer to home I support Reading but overall I’d say I had a “non-active interest” in most sports.


You now have your pick of cars, so what do you drive?


Normally I drive a Vauxhall or Mazda, but in the spirit of “openness” I am currently driving a Jaguar XF, simply because I’ve had a lifelong love affair with them.


Details: www.edenmotorgroup.com www.businessmag.co.uk


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