Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2017 | Page 36

Interview

Fateful meeting
It was at the motor club that Roger first met Ron Truscott – who was later to become his business partner on the Isle of Wight . At that time , Ron owned a small , single-seater Cooper racing car and was looking for someone to mechanic for him in return for a drive of the car . For Roger , it was a dream deal which gave him the chance to get his hands back not just into an engine but behind the wheel of an iconic race car . What he didn ’ t realise was that it would also lead to a massive and life-changing business opportunity for him . That happened after Ron Truscott had supposedly ‘ retired ’ to the Isle of Wight in 1970 . “ He just phoned me up one day and said he ’ d seen a garage for sale at Avenue Road in Freshwater and would I like to go halves with him and buy it ” recalls Roger . It didn ’ t take them long to agree the details , and that initial investment of £ 10,000 each was what brought Roger - on Boxing Day 1970 and at the age of just 25 – to the Island that has been his home ever since . He and Ron opened up on January 2 1971 and took on an agency for Daf , the Dutch brand that was later taken over by Volvo . Business went so well for them that by 1975 , they had undertaken the build of a brand new garage and re-located to the present site in Newport . “ Ron had also been a property developer in his previous life ” says Roger , “ and he felt that the place for us to be was right in the centre of the Island ”. It was around this time that Daf was incorporated into Volvo – a brand that did particularly well on the Island , and with which Central Garage enjoyed huge success until 1982 . Around that time , trading conditions for new cars began changing after a series of financial episodes that had included an oil crisis , three-day week and a recession . “ Volvo ’ s approach changed and there was increasing pressure on us as dealers
to be heavily borrowed and focus on the larger cars ” says Roger . In that situation , he and Ron took the decision to resign the dealership and strike up a deal with a contact in Germany
to supply them with second-hand Volvos . This trade in used Volvos proved massively successful for them on the Island – at least , until the next recession hit in the late 80s to early 90s . “ Things were going haywire at that stage , and the motor trade was altering rapidly , with more emphasis on customer satisfaction and service rather than selling high volumes ” Roger explains . “ We were still selling Volvos , and also did some servicing work , but there was a local Volvo dealership for the new vehicles ”.
French foray
So it was that in 1990 , Central Garage started to turn towards the smaller car market and French brand Citroen , who at that time were just launching the ZX . They expanded the garage into an additional building at the rear , and in 1991 , became a Citroen dealership . Subsequently , that has gone from strength to strength , to the point where the original twoman business that started with a £ 20,000 investment is now a major Island brand with 22 employees , turning over around £ 6m a year . Ron Truscott had already retired by the time the garage went to Citroen – having sold his shareholding in the mid-80s to the man who became Roger ’ s second business partner Stuart Border . Roger and Stuart enjoyed a long and successful partnership until three years
Roger repairing a friends TR2 outside his place in Coventry , 1966
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