01252 615657
fosterandheanes@gmail.com
As of 1st June, Hester's Garage in Fleet is one of four service garages of the F&H Group which serves domestic and commercial clients for MOT’s, car servicing, car repairs and auto-diagnostics testing.
The previous owners are retiring after many happy years of service and once we heard of their plans for retirement, we jumped at the chance to take over such a long established and well located garage. For us it is natural progression.
Hester’s History - a family-run business with traditional values
Albert (Bert) Hester bought the land in Upper Street and had the garage built in 1935, starting his own business 'A. W. Hester'. In the 1950s his daughter Rosemary started working for him, assisting with the accounts, and her husband, Eddie, joined them in the mid '60s as a motor mechanic. In 1980, Rosemary & Eddie took the business over and formed the partnership 'Hester's Garage'.
Their son, Ian, started work at the garage as a mechanic in 1971 and became a partner in 1988.Rosemary & Eddie semi-retired in 1995 and Ian & his wife, Gabi, took the business over and formed a Limited company.
Gabi had been working part time for the garage since 1985 doing the accounts and sharing this job with Ian's sister Mandy. Gabi and Mandy continued to job share but also did all the admin and reception; this arrangement continued until Christmas 2017, when Mandy retired.
Moving Forwards as part of the F&H brand
Like Ian, Gabi and Mandy, we are also a family business. Jackie & I are very hands on and our son James runs our Dogmersfield workshops.
Our plans for Hester’s is pretty much business as usual to start with. We’ve an excellent, efficient and very friendly team who will extend their expertise to Hester’s.
You will find that we are very customer focused and appreciate that, (in the main), what we do isn’t something people enjoy paying for. Nobody has ever told me they can’t wait to service their car again!
In recognising this, we aim to make the experience as pleasant and convenient as possible. To that end we provide free local collection and delivery, free courtesy cars or simply a run back home if needed.
Ultimately, we plan to do a bit of sympathetic modernisation to the buildings and facilities but it is important to us to keep the special feel that the Hester family have created over the 80 years.
Car Servicing, Repairs, MOT & Diagnostic Testing
We will be offering the full range of car servicing, repairs, MOTS and diagnostic testing at Hester’s Garage. Our team of highly skilled technicians work on all makes and models of cars, including classic and vintage cars.
To help minimise the inconvenience of being without the use of your car we can offer complimentary courtesy cars, free local collection and delivery, or simply a lift back home (subject to terms and conditions and availability). Simply make your requests at the time of booking.
We are really looking forward to serving existing and new customers at Hester’s garage and we wish Ian, Gabi and Mandy a very happy and long retirement!
