Partspeed, vehicle dismantler, recycler and supplier of quality ‘green parts’, has purchased 40,000 sq ft industrial premises in Forge Lane Industrial Estate, Maesteg, where it is setting up a ‘carless dismantling business’ which will produce green car parts for both the domestic market and worldwide export. The site is the former Gardner Aerospace factory which closed with the loss of 69 jobs in 2011. Partspeed, which has taken on 10 new members of staff, anticipates creating up to 50 jobs as the business develops, with recruits drawn specifically from the local area. Cooke & Arkwright acted on behalf of Gardner Group Ltd in the deal.
Established in 1984, Partspeed is expanding from its present 1.8 acre site in Rumney, Cardiff. Company Director John Goodliffe said, “A revolution is taking place in the car recycling industry and our new site elevates our business to a different level technologically. The recycling of parts is carried out inside the unit, where our computer system assesses each individual vehicle and in turn produces a list of parts to be removed, such as engines, radiators, alloy wheels, lights and panels etc. We aim to supply the local market from our Maesteg site and also offer a local delivery service. The site is clean, welcoming and the parts are catalogued and on the shelf ready for collection. We are proud and excited by the product and facilities that we are able to offer, not to mention the huge savings that the customers gain by choosing a recycled part over a costly new one, without any compromise on quality. The opportunities for the dismantling industry are substantial and we already export parts to the whole of Europe, the Caribbean, Australia and most recently the USA while of course, the UK is also a big market for us.”
Jeremy Symons of Cooke & Arkwright said, “Gardner Aerospace reluctantly had to close this facility, but are very pleased that a sale has been achieved in a relatively short period of time, to a South Wales business and to a company with bright employment prospects. We were pleased with the response for the premises and had a number of parties making bids. It is fair to say that buyers are still around for vacant accommodation, albeit at discounted values when compared with the pre-2007 boom period.”
David Goodlife, John’s son and partner in the business also sees a good future for the company. “We want to give local unemployed people the chance to grow their potential with us,” he said. “This is an area of relatively high unemployment and we have been working closely with Bridgend and Maesteg councils to find out how we can recruit and retrain people through programmes such as Jobs Growth Wales. They have been very cooperative and we are delighted with the trainees we have taken on so far. This includes a former engineer, a university graphics graduate and a youth worker.”
John Goodliffe agreed. He said that people’s perception of the vehicle dismantling industry as a career choice needed to change. “Unfortunately our industry has never really been attractive to outsiders as a career path, perhaps because we have always been looked upon as the ‘bottom of the heap’, picking up what nobody else wants. Yet modern dismantling techniques are highly efficient, technically demanding and as a consequence require skilled employees. Here at Partspeed we provide a modern, clean and altogether greener option than using new manufactured parts. The traditional scrap yard is disappearing and technology and law are combining to change the way the industry operates. From 2015, EU legislation will require 95% of all of end of life vehicles to be recycled, which is quite significant. The opportunities going forward are vast.”
If the business grows as forecast, Partspeed has longer term plans for expansion in other parts of the country, such as Bristol and The Midlands. “We are proud that we are an indigenous business, growing organically and bringing money into Wales,” said Mr Goodliffe. “Small and growing businesses like ours are the lifeblood of the economy and with less bureaucracy and red tape, there could be a lot more of them.”