Jamie Lowe has run Mudgeeraba Tyre, Brake and Mechanical for 21 years after taking the shop over from this father. A successful bank manager before coming to automotive, Jamie quickly grew the business and built workshop bookings to near capacity. The business is a fixture of the rural Gold Coast suburb Mudgeeraba, with online reviews from locals making it one of the best-rated workshops in the city.

What products and services do you provide?

JL: We’ve got full mechanical services, logbook services and clutches. We do tyres, punctures, wheel alignments, batteries. We aim to be a one-stop shop for general mechanical stuff.
How long have you operated here, and how did the business become established?

JL: Dad was here first; he was at these premises for about 15 years. He was mainly just tyres, and little bit of front-end work. I joined the business 21 years ago, and developed the mechanical
side so the business is now more a mechanical workshop that does tyres, rather than vice versa.

So you grew up with your dad running this workshop?

JL: No, he was in tyres in Tasmania before we moved to Queensland. He came up here and was in management rights for a little while and then decided to get back into tyres and purchased this place as a tyre store. My interest in it only came about because I would run the place to give him time off, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten a holiday.

You must see a few generations coming through having operated here so long.

JL: We’ve got customers now that were babies in arms when I started, and now they’re grown up and bringing their cars in. Here we’ve got the full spectrum – a lot of family business where we’ve got grandparents, children, and their children all coming in. We know them pretty well: their names, what their interests are, and where they work.

What’s your background in the industry?

JL: I was in banking for 25 years. They wanted too much from me personally, so I came out and joined dad. I really didn’t have any background at all in cars, other than driving them. I just developed knowledge over the 20-odd years I’ve been here. Working with different mechanics, you pick up a whole lot of different ways of doing things.

Talk a bit more about that switch from banking. That’s a pretty unusual career path.

JL: I finished up as manager of Westpac Southport, which was the second biggest branch on the Gold Coast. I had about 45 staff. Then the banks changed from customer-focused to profit-driven, as they are now. They just pushed everyone too far without support. Many there couldn’t handle it, and so I chose to leave.

Were there options to go into other finance jobs when you quit the bank?

JL: There were plenty of options, but I’d been coming out here helping dad to give him holidays and so I just started to pick it up and started to get some interest in it. When I left Westpac I just needed a total break from finance, I’d been there for too long.

Coming out here was supposed to be short term, but it just kept going and going, and I got the business moving. We were increasing our customer base and then I stayed on.

What’s behind the shop’s long-term success?

JL: Honestly, all I really try to do is look after the customer. It maybe comes from the way the banks used to be – trying to help the customer. In some ways, I probably still take on their problems personally a bit much. But by doing that, I know where the customer is at. With most families the financials are – especially in Mudgeeraba – not through the roof. So you’ve got to keep that in mind when you’re recommending what needs to be done to a car. And sometimes you stagger the work so they can afford it and you get the car right.

You’ve got a 4.6 star rating on Google (out of 5), but your online marketing seems pretty low-key. Is that strategic?

JL: We’ve got a web page, but all we’ve got on there is our name, address, phone number and working hours. We just haven’t needed to expand our advertising other than through word-of-mouth.
Physically, we really can’t book too much more work, so I haven’t chased it. We’re listed everywhere like Sensis. When a customer jumps on Google apparently we’ve got a pretty good rating – we get people often saying our rating’s the best in town so that’s why they choose us.

And how many staff have you got now?

JL: In the workshop it’s just (mechanic) Matt and me. Louise my wife looks after the office two or three days a week for me. She does the books and all that sort of stuff. She actually just left her teaching career of more than 20 years for two reasons – to spend a few days a week with our two grandsons and spend time here. We just got to the stage where I had to put someone else on for that front-office support.

What are your plans for the business?

JL: Well, it’s hard. We’re limited by this place so I can’t grow the business too much more. We’ve got one hoist and there is room for one more, but it would just make us too cramped. And unfortunately Mudgeeraba doesn’t have any other commercial premises right for us, so we’re focused on maintaining our customer base.

Do you plan for any training on upcoming technology like EVs and autonomous cars?

JL: At my age, no, because I can’t see it a big disruption in the next five to 10 years. We’ve got too many petrol and diesel vehicles out there at the moment. They will eventually disappear, but I think I’ll be in the ground before then so I haven’t worried too much about it.

What’s your shop’s connection with Kumho?

JL: Initially, dad was with Goodyear and then I went to Hankook, primarily because of their delivery service. Then about eight or nine years ago they changed that up and Kumho walked in the next day and said they could offer me a similar type of arrangement. So we jumped in with them and have been ever since.

Do you like the products?

JL: I’ve only had very, very limited problems with Kumho. It’s a good mid-range tyre that suits our customer base. We can supply cheaper and dearer tyres, but Kumho’s predominately my main tyre.

What do you do with your spare time? You’ve got grandkids, what else?

JL: I try to spend as much time as I can with my wife away from work, so we’ve got two things to our lives, not just the business. She’s always pushed me to work to live, not live to work. And I play golf. I’m club captain at the Boomerang Farm Golf Club.

I play off 12 and I look after all the competitions and that sort of stuff. I play Saturday afternoons and some Friday afternoons. Louise always pushes me to get out early on Fridays, she says I work too hard!

Source: Motor Trader E-Magazine (April 2019 Edition)

5 Apr 2019