SUCCESS
Team – Bespoke Motor Works staff Neil Chilton , Connor Muckle , Russell Jackson , Chris Davison , Daniel King , Chris Emmerson and Tyler Middleton .
TEN YEARS
WORDS : DAVE ROBSON PICTURE : CHRIS BOOTH
Premium car dealership celebrates a decade in business
ON THE CLOCK
It began with two colleagues , a handful of cars and a determination to offer a topquality , bespoke service in the premium new and used car market . Ten years on , Stockton-based Bespoke Motor Works has expanded from one unit into four and now has a fleet of more than 60 cars on its books .
And that all adds up to a real success story for founders Russell Jackson and Daniel King who , back in 2014 , decided to embark on a new career journey .
Then , both worked for Cooper BMW – Daniel was general sales manager at Cooper Teesside while Russell was the new car sales manager at the Durham branch .
But despite each racking up 10 years ’ experience , both had a burning desire to offer something more – and Bespoke Motor Works was the result .
Daniel told Tees Business : “ I suppose big dealers can sometimes become focused on units , profit and stuff like that , so there ’ s a risk the customer takes a back seat .
“ By starting Bespoke , we were trying to give people that personal touch where they can sit and have a chat with you about what they want , but without feeling any pressure .
“ When you go into any big dealership , it can be a bit daunting , whereas with us , it ’ s more relaxed . And there ’ s no pressure – I always say to our customers , if you ’ re not 100 per cent happy , don ’ t buy the car .”
Based in Harley Court on Stockton ’ s Preston Farm trading estate , Bespoke started out in one unit but now has four , while staff numbers have grown , too .
Daniel explained : “ We began with just me and Russell but now there ’ s a team of 10 , including salespeople , reception , admin , after sales , a vehicle technician , a logistics manager and our own valeting department . We ’ ve also had different people start as trainees and work their way up to different levels .
“ We started in unit one Harley Court , which we then extended and reconfigured to create more office space . But now we have unit six as an additional showroom , unit nine as our valeting department and unit 10 , which is our workshop .
“ And it would be nice to think we ’ ll continue to grow .”
From the start , and with considerable experience in the field , Russell and Daniel opted to concentrate on premium brands such as BMW , Jaguar Land Rover , Audi , Mercedes and more – although they do source other makes too .
Daniel said : “ Unlike when we were at BMW , we don ’ t just work with one brand now . People may like an Audi one year and then three years later , they might want a BMW , or to change from a Mercedes to a Jaguar or whatever .
“ Most of our cars are priced predominantly from around £ 15,000 to £ 60,000 . But that ’ s not to say that if someone asks for , say , a Fiat 500 for their daughter for £ 10,000 , we can ’ t do that too .
“ We do a lot of cars on finance as well , so people might give us a monthly budget and we ’ d try to find the best car for that budget , as opposed to a particular car . That way , people sometimes end up with
Founders – Bespoke co-owners Russell Jackson and Daniel King .
a car they weren ’ t expecting to get – but they ’ re usually very happy with it .”
With Russell ’ s six-year-old son loving BMXs and quads , and Daniel ’ s two-year-old “ into anything with four wheels ”, they could be ready-made successors to their dads in the future .
But for the moment , as the company ’ s founders and co-owners , Daniel and Russell are happy to keep along the road that ’ s made them such a trusted name in the new and used premium car field , with a loyal and growing number of retail , corporate , family and private customers .
Daniel said : “ Looking back to when we started , I suppose we were quite confident – we ’ d seen other people do it and had success so we thought , why can ’ t we ?
“ But we ’ re very happy with how it ’ s gone , and we ’ d like to say ‘ thank you ’ to everyone for their support and custom over the last 10 years .”
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