NOBODY DOES IT BETTER!
Father-and-son team’s delight as their work earns national accolade
A FATHER and son have won a national award for their painstaking work restoring cars. Drew Gillies and his dad Stuart opened Midland Paintwerks bodyshop, in Stone, in 2010.
They specialise in classic, prestige and performance vehicles. Now they have been officially recognised by Bodyshop Magazine, picking up the bodyshop award.
Thirty-two-year-old Drew, from Weston Coyney, said: “We are extremely happy to have won. We never thought we’d even get mentioned in such a big award. It just shows that our motto ‘quality over quantity’ shines through.
“I’ve always wanted to do a better job, rather than making a lot more money by doing faster jobs. We’ve always said we guarantee all our paintwork. We stand by our work and we use very high premium materials.”
Bodyshop and vehicle restoration is Drew’s passion. “There’s been a lot of hours spent here, researching and getting into all the science, because that’s what really ticks my boxes,” he said.
“The products are tried and tested. Everything we do, I’ve got knowledge of. Recently, my grandad, Vincent Hemmings, passed away and he absolutely loved being here. “They have now dedicated their award to him.” Stuart said: “In the 13 years we’ve been doing this, we’ve never had anybody come back and complain. A lot of our customers are from overseas, from Belgium, Monaco, Holland, Germany.
“The first five or six years, we never did anything local. Not one job from Staffordshire, we never worked that one out.”
The 59-year-old, from Parkhall, added: “We want to use the best products on your vehicle because that way it’s going to be the best. That is what makes us different from other places.
“A lot of people think that because we’re not down south, it isn’t done round here. There are a lot of skilled people in the Potteries.”
They also get all kinds of customers. Drew said: “We have worked with some very wealthy people. But at the same time, we’ve also worked with some very normal people.”
“We get regular mechanics, doctors, anybody really. They’re predominantly male. We do have
some females, but mostly men over 40. With restoration, we don’t rush anything, we don’t spend all hours on it either, but we don’t like to rush.
“We like everything to settle and be right. We’ve heavily invested in the place over the years.”
Stuart added: “We also know our strengths and weaknesses. You know we can’t compete with the modern bodyshops, like M&MS or KCH. But on the flip side, they couldn’t do what we do.”