Award winning car supermarket AvailableCar, have created 30 new jobs over the last two months having attracted employees from the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Yorkshire regions. More jobs are still to be offered at both of their stores located at junctions 24 and 28 of the M1.

Only two months ago, AvailableCar Supermarket opened their second site which was formerly known as MOTORHOUSE 2000 and in addition to the newly created jobs they also re-employed 44 employees making a total of over 70 team members at the new supermarket.

Simon Chapman from Mansfield, now works as a Customer Service Manager after having joined from MOTORHOUSE 2000 where he worked for two years, he said: “If I am honest I was wary about joining AvailableCar as we didn't know what to expect. We knew they only recruited those from service backgrounds and they didn't pay on commission, which seemed unusual and something none of us were used to.

“Three months down the line though, I can honestly say I am really enjoying it and I find it rewarding working as part of a small team and training new Team Members, something which I didn't do in my last job. I have had excellent training which is on-going and being rewarded on service rather then sales is actually a much nicer way to work. I have noticed that customers take kindly to the ‘no pester’ approach.

“The flat structure of the company means that there is always room for promotion which is something that has given me and many others the determination to do well.”

AvailableCar's first site in Castle Donington has also seen the number of team members grow taking the total number of employees to a staggering 218. By 2008, management predict that employee numbers will total more than 250 employees.

Concentrating on delivering excellent service not sales has always been at the forefront of the business operation. Not hiring people from the car industry, apart from those who work in the preparation areas has proven to be a unique but winning formula for driving sales. Paul Arscott Operations Director explains, “We are pleased to offer a variety of jobs suitable for candidates who posses the ambition for promotion and most importantly a willingness to learn. We want friendly, helpful and hardworking individuals who come from backgrounds in other areas of the retail world.

“We have a fresh approach with our customers and we believe that by training new team members our unique process of not to sell but to help our customers buy, we attain the highest levels of customer service.”

Prior to opening, the management team spent a number of weeks training all new recruits to work the ‘AvailableCar way’, which is somewhat different to the usual ‘push and sell’ approach adopted by so many car retailers. Instead, they were informed they would be rewarded on service not sales and by passing on-going training programmes; numerous promotion opportunities would be available to everyone.

In just five years of trading, AvailableCar have been presented with numerous awards for their outstanding service and performance including, ‘UK Used Car Retailer’ for three years in a row and WHATCAR? awarded them as ‘Midlands Best Car Supermarket 2006’.

There is a real sense of ‘Team’ at AvailableCar and the Directors believe it's due to the company values. Team retention is at industry leading levels and is currently over 90% with many faces having been with the company since the beginning. Another benefit is that each year everyone receives a PRP Company profit share year-end bonus, which in previous years has been worth approximately five weeks of extra wages.