A CAR repair business based in Lower Shiplake was a runner-up at an awards ceremony for new businesses.

Revive! Reading was a finalist in the franchisee of the year category at the Startups Awards, which celebrate companies that have been trading for less than thee years.

The judging panel was headed by Duncan Bannatyne, of the BBC’s Dragons’ Den programme.

Revive! Reading offers a mobile bodyshop service for minor bumps and scrapes on vehicles.

Owner Huw James left his job as a procurement and logistics manager for an IT company in order to run his own business and spend more time with his children, Joshua, 14, and Olivia, 11.


He trained as a mechanic in his early twenties before moving into IT and has always been interested in cars.

Mr James, 47, said: “I was going to work early in the morning and getting home late at night so I wasn’t able to see the children grow up. Now I can be much more flexible as I’m my own boss.

“Three years in, I have three vans on the road and I wanted five vans in five years so it’s all going to plan.”

Mr James attended the awards ceremony in Kensington with his wife Diane, a solicitor, and said: “I am very chuffed.”

Published 14/01/13