You were a very early adopter of the Bicester Heritage concept, what first attracted you to the site from Aylesbury?
I was one of the first half-a-dozen customers of Historit because I always had more cars than I had garage space, so I was one of the very first in Historit and the site was still in disarray… So the kind of running joke with Dan was ‘we’ve got a lubricant store, when are you going to move in?!’ We were in an industrial estate in the middle of Aylesbury, in a sort of nondescript area, so I thought if we don’t do it, somebody else will, and I will regret it!
What attracted us to the site… we get the idea I think, we understand the benefit of being with like-minded companies. There’s also the fact that retail is changing, not just to be online, but also to be experiential rather than just transactional. We thought that if we are here, then we can make the most of everything else that happens on site, especially the events.
Can you give us a brief outline of how Motor Spirit has progressed and what % increase in turnover do you think you have achieved? What do you think is key to the success of the business?
I think key to the success of the business is connections, and I think that’s always been my experience. Being here is a massive benefit for opening doors, that wouldn’t open if one wasn’t here.
In terms of percentage increase, we have tripled in size since we’ve been here, and key to our success has always been to try to get to the top of the food chain of everything that we sell, because the problem with retail is that if you are buying from a manufacturer or a wholesaler, the days of marking a product up and selling are numbered.
Our goal is to be the wholesaler and the retailer so that we can control the value train of the products that we manage. We now have our own brand, we have brands that are solely sold in the UK, we also have a dealer network below us, and so our strategy is to do that. We encourage our stockists to sell at something like list price.
You have multiple satellites to your business but what do you value about being in Bicester/Oxfordshire, and does our geographic location help your business?
Bicester is well connected by road, it’s handy that we are in a wealthier part of the country but mostly the road connections are what we need, more so than being in Oxfordshire. It’s the site itself that is more valuable, rather than being in Oxfordshire per se.
In terms of hiring and retaining skilled talent, have you found it hard to find the right people for the job? How have you recruited and grown your skillset?
Our people are skilled in retail and logistics rather than Tribology or Engineering. Emily, who now manages Motor Spirit, was working in a coffee shop but had a passion for vintage cars and the right personality for a customer-facing role so I took her to lunch and said, what will it take to get you aboard? That’s been my most successful recruitment of all time! Apart from that, we recruit through contacts, so other people we have recruited have been through friends of friends, so we recruit on enthusiasm and attitude rather than anything else. You can get the basics of what we do very quickly, what’s most important is that you know how to look after customers and know how a retail and wholesale operation works.
Is there a moment of distinct pride that you often consider as a seminal moment in your time at Motor Spirit?
The best one is our link to SOS Workshop; I don’t think that that would have happened if we hadn’t been here. When they had a bit of a crisis and put out a call for help, we were able to a) move quickly and b) have the cache of being at Bicester Heritage, which helped. We took at stake in the workshop, which then led to Fuzz Townshend’s engagement which in turn resulted in the launch of our own brand range, which uses Fuzz’s name and image. Since then, we have provided all lubricants for National Geographic’sCar SOS, which is filmed at our Birmingham workshop so that’s been something that I think a lot of larger companies envy; it wouldn’t even occur to them to create that sort of marketing strategy, and being at Bicester helped to make it happen.
We always enjoy watching visitors flock to Building 96, and it lends itself incredibly well during Scrambles – what elements of it resonate with you, aside from the fact that it was the original RAF lubricant store(!)
The fact that it was the lubricant store is highly relevant and also the fact that we are at the centre of the site. This year we are going to use the stage as well! My business partner is a very famous musician, so we have the ability to do some music that I think we will do for Flywheel… I’m learning how to play the steel drums and we hope to have some Motor Spirit branded drums for a future event! You can’t hear that music without smiling. Plus we already do product in steel drums, so it has a link to what we sell.
What are the strangest requests from clients that you have found solutions to?
The very strangest was for a World War One biplane, they wanted a lubricating oil for the engine but because of the design and location of the engine, they end up breathing in a lot of the oil. We had to make sure that the oil we ended up supplying to them wasn’t going to damage them – oils are not nice when they have been used. We were able to make a recommendation for an oil that wouldn’t cause physical issues for the pilot because of the unique situation that they are in.
What work ethic do you value above all others and what do you hope that customers and visitors to your location will take away with them?
We’ve changed our name to Motor Spirit, not only because it’s the old name for petrol, but also because embodies the spirit within which we approach the business. The logo is a heart shape, which incorporates the ‘M’ and the ‘S’, and all of that – Fuzz is also passionate about the hobby of classic motoring – so what I hope that people leave here with, no matter who they talk to, is a passion and enthusiasm for what they love. Whether you’ve got a Lambretta scooter or a Bugatti racing car, we are always interested, hopefully we know something about it already, and as well as making technical recommendations we can display enthusiasm for our customer’s interests – it is the spirit of what we do!
Our hashtag is going to be #thatsthespirit – it’s all about the spirit of what they love.
We have seen the future of classic motoring take something of a shift towards synthetic fuels as an alternative, what are your views on this as a sustainable solution?
Clearly the future of historic motoring is important, it’s a surprisingly big business – we think its twice the size of the Scotch Whisky industry all together – which underlines how important it is for the national economy. Nobody knows that they just think it’s a collection of old men in sheds tinkering away and not adding value to anything, but actually there’s a huge industry who support that business. It’s vitally important for the future of historic motoring that there is some kind of availability of liquid fuel, as politicians naturally seem to go to ‘why don’t you make everything battery powered’. That’s not sensible, because a) you’re ripping out the heritage part of that piece of architecture and b) it’s not very environmentally friendly, because actually the amount of fuel that these cars burn is minute as they are hardly used. By embedding all the additional CO2 during the conversion, you are never going to get even with what you would burn using fossil fuels going forward. So electric conversion isn’t sensible for 99%... the future is a sustainable liquid fuel, and these will be synthetic.
The great thing about petrol and diesel is that they are incredibly energy-dense, so copying that in a synthesised way is tricky to do, but it is becoming more doable. We are one of the leading companies in the country for the sale and distribution of synthetic petrol, we will have a petrol station here, we will have product so people can come and fill up with fossil-free petrol. We like to analogise between listed buildings and listed cars; you wouldn’t ever dream of ripping apart a grade one listed house – you do other things to improve its energy efficiency. It’s the same with these cars, we need to find a way of keeping them together but not being overtly old-fashioned. We want to show that the industry is keeping up with the latest technologies while also preserving the technology that they were built with.
You work with some interesting brands, what is it about Gulf and Penrite that make their products stand out?
Quality. Gulf and Penrite, and all our suppliers, know how to do what they do. They have decent brand recognition and an amazing array of products, in addition to quality control. You have to have a certain degree of control so that you know every drum of race fuel is the same as the one that you just had, so you don’t wreck the car. Penrite make some incredible viscosities of oil, the chemistry behind them is second to none, and no one has managed to do it in the same way that they have. We’ve done the same with our own brand, Fuzz Townshend’s Classic Oils, we’ve had them made to our own specification as we know that there is a market who want to have a unique quality product and they want to be able to trust it.
What piece of advice would you give to any aspiring engineer, mechanic or enthusiast hoping to get in to the historic motoring world?
I would say, get your hands dirty! Don’t be afraid to just do something. Get the remains of an old vehicle, take it to pieces and see how you can get it back together. There’s loads of support out there, people know that youngsters are the future of this business and all of us oldies are aware that we need to pass on this enthusiasm to the next generation. Once you show a bit of gumption, you will find that there are endless amounts of support in terms of bits and education, it’s all out there for the taking.
What piece of advice would you give to a classic car owner or car enthusiast about maintaining the fuel, oil and other liquids in their cars?
Don’t forget about the liquids in your cars, it’s very easy to overlook it. People say to me, do I really need to change the engine oil every year? Most people don’t do it, but the key thing is that you don’t forget altogether. Get a routine and think of it from the liquids point of view. The big problem with fuel is storing it.. do you dehumidify the garage, do you put a fuel tap in the fuel line, do you put an additive in the petrol? Out of sight, but don’t forget it – it should be the first tool in your toolbox. Treat the liquids with the respect that they deserve and don’t be afraid to ask!
You have recently presented to All Party Parliamentary Groups, what items did you have on your agenda to present to MPs?
I was there representing the HCVA, of which we are a Founding Partner, and our objective is to raise the profile of historic motoring, putting a very niche hobby into a language that MPs understand. The analogy of listed buildings is very important to them, they understand listed buildings, they work in a listed building and understand the heritage behind it, that it’s a piece of archaeology for society. That’s the same with historic motoring.
Cars are items of mobile heritage, they are not that good at getting from a to b as modern cars, but that’s not their purpose any more. It’s getting through to them the size of the industry that supports the hobby of the end user, and the value to the British economy in terms of industry, but also export and the amount of foreign currency that it brings in. We are world leaders in this industry that no one knows about, and please, therefore, don’t accidentally make it extinct through inadequately thought-through legislation. Before we started one there wasn’t a group representing classic motoring, and it’s very important that they understand the consequences of their actions.
Finally, can you give us some final words of wisdom and advice about business or life that you live by?
If you have small business, the most damaging thing is that you can get stuck inside your small business and its really bad for you. Don’t let that happen! Get out and mix with other people, either with people from your industry or other industries. I’ve always been involved in representative organisations, in running them, being a member of them… when I’m a member I don’t just pay the subs, I get involved. I had a monthly curry club in Aylesbury for years, and it was Buckinghamshire’s most successful business networking event. Really because it had no agenda, it had no minutes… it was just fun!
Join something like HCVA or a local Business Group, get out there, go and do something and just talk to other business owners because everyone has got ideas and processes that are relevant to you, and vice versa. You can leave your day-to-day grind behind. Fantastic!