"We offer an alternative and accessible service for female drivers”
Director and owner Kay Fellows talks about how it differs
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE CAR INDUSTRY?
By accident! My husband and his business partner at the time, had previously worked for BMW and Mercedes Benz main dealers and were looking to start up a business that could offer generally a better service at more competitive prices.
My background was very different, being in the fashion industry. It involved a lot of travelling and I had two young daughters to think about. I had also been a marketing manager, as part of my career, however I left the fashion industry in 2010 to help my husband at the newly-established Stourbridge Automotive Ltd. – Audi, BMW and Mercedes Specialist garage.
I look after marketing, recruiting and all the finances. It’s a hard industry for a woman to be in, being male-dominated and at first it was a complete culture shock and therefore a huge learning curve.
HOW DOES STOURBRIDGE AUTOMOTIVE DIFFER FROM OTHER CAR GARAGES?
There are Audi, BMW and Mercedes main dealers, plus the smaller independent garages. We have tried to pitch ourselves somewhere in between, but run very much like the dealers, with lower overheads, which allows us to be competitive on price.
HOW HAVE YOU TRIED TO MAKE THE GARAGE MORE FEMALE-FRIENDLY?
We pride ourselves on a clean welcoming environment to walk into. We also have an easy to read website which Neil and I both wrote. We have several female staff and I’d love to have some female technicians working alongside the men in the future. So, if you are a female technician, or if you know of anyone please get in touch, as I would be very interested to have them as part of our team. For more women to come into a garage with their cars, they must feel comfortable in the environment and most of all trust the people they are dealing with.
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