About Martinet Motor Company

Name: Martinet Motor Co Ltd
Address: Martinet Rd, Thornaby, Stockton On Tees, TS17 0BQ, UK
Telephone: 01642 769838

Company history / background

The building was built in 1970 as a vehicle body repair business by a company called "Teagues".

During the 70's a local family father and son team took over and started service and repair calling the business "E and B Rhea". In January 1987 a Mr George Young bought the garage and changed the name to Martinet Motor Company after Martinet road on the Old Airfield Industrial estate and this was the start of the business looking as we see it today - both visually and in terms of the way we do things.

It was in November of 1987 that an ambitious young man by the name of Ian Atkinson came on the scene. First offered a job as vehicle technician, Ian fell in love with the work ethic within the company and the saying "if a job's worth doing then it's worth doing right" became etched into Ian's mind and was certainly never more true or appropriate.

Eventually Ian progressed to the position of workshop foreman and assisted in the day to day running of the business as well as "flying solo" in the boss's absence. This experience was to prove invaluable later.

Feeling the need to spread his wings still further in February 1992 Ian left Martinet and moved to main dealer land to gain a different experience. First working as a technical service reception engineer in a Rover dealer then finally promoted to Service Manager running a Citroen workshop - all the time gaining experience of responsibility that was part of the package with such a position.

The culmination in achievement in this role was when Ian and his team were awarded a National Service Excellence award by Citroen UK for the high levels reached after a survey was conducted amongst customers of their own as well as all the main dealers in the UK network by the manufacturer - a truly proud moment!

Despite this obvious success Ian still felt frustration brought on by the continual challenge of providing a "proper" service within a dealer environment and the inherent drawbacks due to sheer size, different departmental interests, volume requirements and having to do business "by the balance sheet".

So when in august 1995 Ian and his wife Linda were given the opportunity to "come back home" and run Martinet Motor Company as their own, they jumped at the chance.
Since then continual and progressive expansion has ensured that Ian and his growing team keep in touch with modern technology and the business goes from strength to strength.
So much so that in the summer of 2008 Ian appointed Kevin Smith, the original "apprentice" way back in the starting days, as Reception Engineer/Service Manager and it is Kev who will usually be your first contact when checking in at reception.

Having previously run reception himself, this move allowed Ian to focus more on workshop projects and developments - in particular diagnostics and problem solving where the Diesel and Turbo repair business is growing by the month - work which even includes repairs for other garages from time to time - such is Martinet's reputation in the area.

Ian Atkinson.

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