Baptism of fire

Take Chris and Nick Parisot La-Valette, for example. Both were at Portsmouth University and were not exactly excelling, with Chris having to resit a year of his fine art course.

At this point their father Mike sat them down and asked them what they wanted to do with their careers. They both said “work with cars,” having enjoyed part-time jobs at a vehicle audio business.

Mr Parisot La-Valette senior took them at their word and agreed to help them start their own business doing just that, using the money he would have given them to study.

They bought an existing bodywork and vehicle restoration business which, they quite reasonably thought, would be better than starting from scratch.

But it was a baptism of fire into the world of business and an experience from which, five years later, they are still learning.

Chris explained: “The company seemed fine on paper but after about two weeks about nine customers had contacted us saying they had paid the full amount for their cars to be done and they had not been touched.”

Their mistake had been that they had not carried out due diligence when they bought the firm and were saddled with about £100,000-worth of work owed to customers.

But to protect their reputation, they decided to complete the orders instead of abdicating responsibility. As a result, it took three years to re-establish the business and break even. At that point they did what they should have done in the first place, and change the name to C&N Customs.

Chris said: “We have had to learn everything from the ground up— the hard way.

“We did not know anything about bodywork and painting cars and had to rely on the people who came to work here to teach us.”

Now the brothers will literally turn their hands to anything, from the mundane to the exotic at their base at Waterside Business Park, Middle Aston. Current projects include two Lamborghinis, a Lancia Monté Carlo and a ground-up restoration of a Porsche 911.

But they are also working on a series of 1970s VW camper vans and a frequent visitor is the owner of a Ford Ka which has been heavily customised.

And it’s not just cars — everything from furniture to fridges has come under the spray gun. Walking around the premises, split into three units, what is striking is the amount of money people will spend on cars that have relatively little face value.

Many come into the workshop riddled with rust and once shot-blasted, have to be virtually rebuilt before any of the priming, painting and re-equipping kicks in.

In the case of one particular Porsche, about £25,000 is being spent to recreate what is literally a shell into something that could be argued (at least in terms of the bodywork) will be better than the original.

Nick said: “I walk into car showrooms now and I see imperfections in the bodywork of new vehicles all the time.”

Of course, to achieve the level of finish of a custom car takes time. It may take months or even years to produce a completely restored vehicle but customers are prepared to wait.

Chris said: “These people are passionate and many of them come in just for a chat and to see how the job is progressing.”

But if a project is not worth it, then the customer will be told.

Chris said: “We don’t want to do ourselves out of a job but we will tell them that for their budget, we will not advise them going ahead with the work.”

Next month, C&N Customs will be taking a stand at the MPH Show at London’s Earls Court, which they have successfully attended before, where they will be exhibiting their own customised Mitsubishi Evo.

The event, featuring the team from BBC TV’s Top Gear, is highly-prestigious and a good way of building up contacts and taking orders.

Overall, 2009 has been an excellent year for the brothers, helped by Mike, a retired City banker and their mother Heather, the company secretary who is helping train her sons to handle company adminstration.

And with uncle Neil Parisot La-Valette a full-time member of staff, it’s real family affair.

Chris said: “Everything we have done is self-taught — colleges can’t teach you what we have learnt on our own, and every job is different.”

And although they have built up a wealth of experience good and bad, their youth is still deceiving for many customers.

Nick said: “People say to us that we are too young to be doing this — you are not old enough to know what you know!”