A Brief History of Tyreshops
Tyreshops is the trading name of Tyre Sales & Service (Hedge End) Ltd.
Tyre Sales & Service was formed in 1981 by Derek Woolls who had worked in the Tyre industry since 1958. He had managed establishments for Express Tyres and National Tyres as well as being heavily involved with Golightly Tyres in Southampton. It was after he left this last-named company that Derek wanted to start his own business. At first he had a van with a built-in compressor and would look after fleets of trucks, trailers and earthmovers for some fairly large companies who had depots or quarries in Hampshire.
Having had enough of working all hours in all weathers Derek decided to move into an industrial unit at Hedge End, in order that he could have a “base’’ from which he could work, both to look after existing clients and to start fitting tyres for the “public’’. Within months space had become limited and Derek decided to move into a larger unit on the same Industrial Estate. In 1983 Derek started to supply and fit exhaust pipes to new and existing customers. He now had space to fit tyres, exhausts and commercials under one roof. Business increased very steadily and it was within 2 years that another premises became available at Eastleigh. Derek employed one of his sons, Mike to open the new branch with another person. That branch became busy after a while and customers were being looked after properly, something which is very important to Derek and his wife Judy.
Derek’s other son Sid (Derek has three sons, only 2 of whom are involved in Tyreshops) was by now starting another branch in Woolston, Southampton which soon built up a good customer base. For a good few years all 3 branches continued trading, always applying Derek’s principles: Speedy, efficient service at a reasonable cost to the customer and a smile when the bill was paid. We as a company have always tried to ensure that customers’ visits to us are as stress-free as possible.
In September 1995 Tyreshops Eastleigh invested in an M.O.T. bay and started to undertake garage work.
After a while this proved to be very successful and the Eastleigh branch is still going strong, the customer base having grown significantly over the years.
The end of 1997 saw the closure of the Woolston Tyreshop as a rent review rendered the property no longer viable in a business sense. Also a lack of staff meant that the tyreshops employees who did work there had a chance to return to one of the larger branches.
All of Tyreshops’ most valuable members of staff (although all of our staff are important to us) were now at the two busiest branches and this made for a smooth, efficient running all of the time.
With a view to the future, Tyreshops has always been eager to look at new opportunities and an excellent one arose towards the end of the year 2000. An industrial unit next door to the existing Hedge End Tyreshop became available and after much consideration Derek and Judy decided to open another M.O.T and Garage Services centre. Having completed all the formalities, in April 2001 Tyreshops Garage Services was born. It is a fully equipped workshop in which we can carry out M.O.T. testing, servicing and general repairs on cars and light commercial vehicles.
All three of Tyreshops’ workshops still endeavour to offer very good quality work at affordable prices and will always strive to do so in the future.
