A north west business specialising in buying high-end cars is on track to hit £100m turnover in five years.
Lee Collins founded Rochdale-based Revilo Automotive in 2016 – two years after selling his car dealer group Hillendale.
The entrepreneur’s planned retirement lasted only 69 days before he launched his new business – Revilo Group, which is his oldest son’s name Oliver spelt backwards - and he’s never looked back.
The self-confessed ‘petrolhead’ started Revilo Automobile in 2016 with business partner Joe Greenwood a week after a restrictive covenant expired and uses the tagline ‘We don’t buy every car’!
Unlike their rivals Webuyanycar.com, Revilo Automotive specialise in buying quality high performance or high specification vehicles rather than quantity.
Turnover reached £5m within six months of launching and is expected to hit £30m this year but the 51-year-old said it was on course to reach £100m in the next five years.
Collins praised Webuyanycar.com but said their business model didn’t cater for vehicles with a lot of added specifications.
He explained: “Webuyanycar.com is a tremendous business and have helped many people liquidate a car at the time they needed it. I’ve got nothing but respect for them. They’re the largest online buying platform in the 海角视频 and they’re owned by British Car Auctions so it’s a perfect business model.
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“When you look at specialist cars, particularly cars where people have added specifications, there is a better way to maximise the value of the car and that’s where we believe we come in.
“The public don’t get an online price when they register their car with Revilo Automobile because there isn’t an algorithm that would allow us to accurately differentiate their vehicle from a similar one.
“We’ll travel at our expense to their home or office to inspect the vehicle and the owners will get a better price from us the majority of the time. All we expect is for the customer to describe the car accurately. The next decade promises to be very exciting.”
Revilo Automotive is backed by Coutts bank and is one of a number of companies that form part of Revilo Group, including Revilo Capital; Revilo Developments, Revilo Homes, Revilo Mortgages and Revilo Life.
Collins, who left school at the age of 16 with just two O-Levels in maths and English - is a majority shareholder in all the businesses but says the key is working alongside similar-minded entrepreneurs.
His big break into the car industry came at the age of 19 when he got a job as a salesman for Lookers in Rochdale.
He quickly rose up through the industry from salesman to general manager, trebling the profitability and customer satisfaction levels of the BMW franchise in East Lancashire he went to work for.
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After being made managing director he oversaw an MBO of the dealership, which rebranded at Hillendale Land Rover in 2006.
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He sold the business in 2014 but ended his planned retirement after two months.
“I rented an office on the outskirts of Rochdale with a brief case, lap top, one desk, a land line and no idea of what I was going to do,” he said.
Restrictive covenants prevented him doing anything around cars for two years but a chance meeting with Joe Greenwood ended with the pair launching Revilo Automotive.
“I knew the appetite was there and the challenge was making sure we had enough retail stock,” said Collins.
“You can’t sell it, if you haven’t got it!
“We look at ourselves as a technology company and not a car company. We are developing the tech ourselves. We’re investing in systems and processes that most businesses buy off the shelves.”
The entrepreneur said Rochdale was critical to the company’s success.
“What you essentially have is a location centrally located between some of the great northern powerhouses in Manchester and Leeds, fantastic transport links to all areas of the country and some of the largest manufacturing businesses in the 海角视频,” he said.
“What’s not to like?”