After 10 years as a manager for Goodyear Tyres in Truro, Scottish born Justin Roberton was presented with an opportunity to change his life and, with a little bit of help from Francis Clark, he took it.

In early 2008 Justin was manager of the Truro branch of HiQ Tyre Services when he was offered the opportunity to bid for the franchise for the South West outlets for the highly visible national brand.

With a working knowledge of the Cornish HiQ branches in Bodmin, St Austell and Truro, he and his wife Kim decided to make a bid to run these as franchisees.

After seeking advice from Francis Clark, the firm was able to assist in the preparation of a business plan for the bank, cash flows and financial support so that Justin felt confident in making an offer for the business.

His offer was successful and Francis Clark assisted in the formation of a company, the registration of the company for PAYE, VAT, corporation tax and dealing with the necessary arrangements and, following the acquisition of assets from Goodyear, Justin and Kim formally took over the franchise on 1st August 2008.

The business developed and prospered although Justin was becoming frustrated with the specialist accounting and financial software provided by Goodyear. As a result of this, Francis Clark’s Mark Hastings got the in-house management accounting team to take a look at the problem, sorted it and offered Justin monthly support for management accounts, PAYE support and preparation of VAT returns.

Mark Hastings said: “Following completion of the first year’s accounts, we assisted in the preparation of cash flows and financial projections for the second year and continued to offer monthly management accounting assistance.

“After 4 or 5 months with the business going from strength to strength, Justin was aware that an opportunity arose to open another branch in Helston, he decided to take on a business that had ceased trading, rebrand it as HiQ and opened this as the fourth outlet.

“After much stress in getting the outlet opened, Justin’s decision has been fully vindicated by the strong sales recorded in the branch and the strong retail activity that has been generated.

”HiQ was a Winter Rule client which has remained with the firm through their recent merger with Francis Clark and they are very happy to continue working with us and to benefit from the extra resources now available.”

38 year-old Justin added: “10 years ago, I never expected to be owner/manager of four successful Hi Q outlets employing over 20 people. I am truly indebted to Mark and his team for their strategic advice and support.  It has gone so smoothly, our monthly meetings are now quarterly and I am very confident in the way the business is running.”

It seems to be working well.  Justin’s Helston outlet was shortlisted as Tyre Centre of the Year in the National Tyre Dealers Awards.