OUR MANAGING DIRECTOR, DAVE BEALE, IS FEATURED IN THE ABP MAGAZINE AND TELLS OF THE CHALLENGES OF RUNNING WYNDON MOTORS AND XK ENGINEERING
TWO’S COMPANY
As the owner and Managing Director of two very different bodyshop operations, Dave Beale is used to doubling up with the demands of running a business. Here he tells us more about how his modern repair and classic restoration operations dovetail on the outskirts of Coventry and the other challenges he’s had to contend with in recent times.
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It’s fair to say that the past two years haven’t been easy for Dave Beale from either a professional or personal point-of-view. In September 2019, Dave acquired XK Engineering, one of the world’s foremost classic Jaguar specialists, to add to the accident repair business that he successfully took over four years previously – Wyndon Motors. Since then, he’s relocated his original business across Coventry to premises adjacent to his newest venture but also had to contend with the pandemic and not least because it claimed the lives of two of his employees.
And whilst Dave and his wife Ruth Moring-Beale, National Sales Director at Morelli UK, both caught the virus but fortunately with only minor symptoms, he has also had another challenge of his own to contend with after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“I don’t like to do things by halves,” shrugged Dave.
“With so much going on within both businesses, it’s taken my mind off the diagnosis as I just haven’t had time to wallow in things,” he added. “Going for the treatment was a pain as I wanted to be at work but I actually enjoyed the chemotherapy as it provided four hours of peace and quiet when I could recline the chair and catch up on my sleep.
“When I was first diagnosed, the cancer had spread to other parts of my body but I received excellent care at the Birmingham Prostate Clinic and the doctors are very pleased with my progress as I’m nearly in remission now, so fingers crossed.”
There is always plenty going on within his two thriving businesses now operating side-by-side and amongst his 50-strong workforce to keep Dave’s mind occupied.
After 57 years at Keresley, Wyndon Motors – Coventry’s oldest accident repair centre – moved seven miles to Shilton and an impressive new 15,000 square foot facility in March. Consolidating its original location and a second unit in Bedworth, the new premises are purpose-built and almost twice the size of the former sites combined.
From a shell, the operation was up and running within eight weeks following a £225,000-investment in new equipment that included two spray booths, a mixing shop and aluminium bay together with future-proofing for repairs to electric vehicles for any of the 25 manufacturers that Wyndon Motors holds approvals for.
Dave recalled: “The move was the right thing to do albeit at the wrong time because of Covid and everything else but it was a fantastic opportunity and one that wasn’t going to come along every day, so it was very much a case of if we don’t do it now, we’ll never get this chance again.
“Ruth was superb as she project managed the move in her spare time with the help of our Operations Director Paul French. All of the suppliers involved were brilliant, particularly Todd Engineering, BASF and of course Morelli, as were our staff. Everyone pulled together and we literally moved on the Friday and over the weekend so we were ready to open the doors on the Monday morning.
Click here to see the full story on ABP Magazine
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