All Car Engine Reconditioning Service (ACERS) at Ormeau
involved in the motor industry and the trucking industry, and been working in this area for 40 years, and we decided to start our own company. About 12 months after that we got involved in the export business for the mines and half our week was doing that and the other half buying and selling cars.
What are the businesses? HH: We have the reconditioning engines
business and then a more general mechanical business doing logbook services, mechanical repairs, dyno tuning, and preparing cars for motorsport – we worked on Steven Johnson’s Mustang for the Touring Car Masters last year. We’re truly a one-stop shop. The main impetus for us to open the business was so Len could have a hoist to work with! He is a qualified mechanic and as part of our car business at home he would do roadworthy certificates, service and detail vehicles.
How did it become such a success? HH: We knew the contract with the gold
mine was going to end so we were looking for something to fill that gap. Our idea was to keep doing what we were doing, buying and selling cars, from one shed with a hoist, and we opened a machine shop with a manager and a machinist while we kept doing that. LH: With that business we weren’t dealing with the public but were doing the reconditioning work for another business. But over that first 12 months we discovered things weren’t running correctly and it cost us a lot of money. Basically, we had to start again. We sat down and looked at what we had to do to stay afloat and realised we needed to open to the public. Incredibly, from the day we did that, we had work and we now send engines Australia-wide. We’ve had customers drive their cars to us from outside southeast Queensland and then fly home while their engines are worked on. November 2019 Motor Trader | 17