Felpham garage celebrates 50 years in the community

The garage, on Felpham Road, provides MOTs, break repairs, part replacements, and servicing for a range of vehicles and customers all over Bognor Regis. Staff celebrate fifty years of service on Wednesday (February 1) and owner Fred Boulton still comes into the office every day. Now 79 years old, he says he doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon.

"I’ll never retire,” he said. "I think a lot of people retire and they just vegetate. I don’t want to vegetate, I want to stay active.”

And work at Milestones certainly does that. Running a successful business for fifty years, though all the ups and downs of the last half-century, has kept him on his toes, and he says the secret to surviving is a willingness to adapt.

"So much is different. If you go back 45 years, the majority of the business here was tyres, MOTs, batteries and exhausts. But, nowadays, exhausts last forever and a day, batteries are the same. So all our money comes from MOTs, servicing and repairs now.

"I think you just need to take an interest in the world around you. The market's changing all the time, and you’ve got to change with it. If you don’t, you’re dead.”

Milestones Garage started out a little ways down the road, in a space now occupied by Darren Miles Funeral Directors. They started out selling batteries manufactured onsite, and soon had enough success to expand into their current venue, which they took over in 1976.

"Before this, I was an electronic development engineer,” Mr Boulton said. “But when I got the opportunity to take over a business, I grabbed it with both hands.”

"I had no idea I’d still be here fifty years later,” Mr Boulton said. “You just never know what’s around the corner. But we’ve survived, and I really enjoy what I do. It keeps me active and happy, and I've no desire to stop.”

To find out more about Milestones Garage, visit them in person on Felpham Road, call 01243 864221, or visit their website milestonesgarage.co.uk

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