HOT SPOT FOR AUTO SHOP Family firm moving out
ONE of Townsville’s longestrunning automotive businesses is consolidating into one workshop as part of the changing trends in the industry and changes in key staff.
The decision has prompted the marketing for lease of a warehouse in Aitkenvale where Bob Parkes Muffler City has traded for 40 years.
“It’s sad. We have traded there for so long it becomes part of your life. But you have to move on and do what’s best,” Bob Parkes Automotive operator Robbie Parkes said.
The son of business founder Bob Parkes said the Aitkenvale property was in a good location at the corner of Anne and Charles streets and that whoever jumped in had a good opportunity.
Colliers International Townsville is marketing the property for lease for when Bob Parkes Muffler City is merged into Bob Parkes Automotive later this year.
The business will continue to trade at its current workshop at Hyde Park near the corner of Charters Towers Rd and Woolcock St.
Colliers agent James Pascoe said that the Aitkenvale property at 18 Anne St comprised a warehouse, workshop, offices, showroom and storage of 550 sqm on a 1012 sqm site with ample room for parking.
“It’s a great corner site. It would suit anyone in the automotive industry,” Mr Pascoe said.
Robbie Parkes said his father owned and operated a former Esso service station at the corner of Hugh St and Ingham Rd, Garbutt, in the 1960s before starting the automotive business in 1970, initially in the city and then at Hyde Park.
The second workshop Aitkenvale was opened 1980.
Mr Parkes said there were fewer specialised exhaust workshops in the city and one of the reasons was the move from the use of mild steel to stainless steel for exhausts.
“They just don’t fall apart near as much,” Mr Parkes said.
The business’s Aitkenvale staff will relocate to the Hyde Park shop in September, bringing with them skills in the fitting of exhausts and tow bars. in in
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