Shaws Service Station shares plans following acquisition
Proven online strategy will be key to reshaping garage’s reputation
A garage owner in north Wales, with a track record for buying garage businesses and turning their fortunes around, has spoken about his acquisition of Cambrian Autoservices, and how his previous experience is shaping its future.
Rich Maitland-Price’s journey began when he took over Shaws Service Station in Kinmel Bay in 2012. At the time, it had a reputation locally for being the ‘wrong type’ of garage.
He said: “Some customers hadn’t received a failed MOT in four years, so from day one we were inundated with work. That’s not always a good thing though. If customers are used to a garage being too cheap, you’ll be too busy, working long hours and on the wrong jobs.”
Maitland-Price quickly implemented a change. He identified the jobs he wanted to work on and, in the process, changed the garage’s customer profile.
Shaws Service Station steadily gained a reputation as a garage that didn’t cut corners and did the job right – meaning customers who understood that this meant paying the right price.
In 2023 he bought an MOT station in Rhyl, rebranding it under the Shaws name. Again, he made changes, running the two sites with the ethos that “only the best will do”.
Last year, following his latest and largest acquisition to date of Cambrian Autoservices, also in Rhyl, he knew his tried and tested business strategy would inevitably lead to the loss of some existing customers again.
He continued: “When we took over Cambrian, we knew there’d be work to do to build its reputation to the level we’ve earned at Shaws.
“Cambrian didn’t have a bad reputation as such. It was more that it was quite old-fashioned, and the building was very rundown. Two elderly guys had managed it for years and all the systems were paper-based.
“I could see its potential though and couldn’t wait to breathe new life into it. With a designated MOT bay, five ramps, and the space for three more, Cambrian was perfect for us.
“We hit the ground running and implemented change straight away by doing what proved to be the right strategy for our other garages.”
Maitland-Price instructed garage website specialist, Garage Services Online (GSO), to design and build a dedicated website for the Cambrian Autoservices site.
He continued: “By introducing our unwavering high standards and charging the right price, we will lose some customers. It happened when we took over the first Rhyl site, but that’s okay. The website is replacing them with new customers. It’s all part of the process.
“The website is playing a big part in turning Cambrian’s reputation around. It shines like a beacon online, draws in the right enquiries, and is helping us achieve the massive potential that this site has.”