David Baxendale established his Revive franchise in 2003 and it has proven the answer to many a car owner’s prayer ever since.

Great British Life: Dan LyonsDan Lyons (Image: Archant)

The franchise covers East Cheshire from Altrincham, Knutsford and Wilmslow to Macclesfield and Congleton, and when I launched it I believed that it would prove popular because of the pricing – it’s cheaper than taking your car to a bricks and mortar body shop,’ says Knutsford resident David Baxendale. ‘However, we soon learned that in fact it’s the convenience of the service that our customers really appreciate. We come to you and do the work on your driveway, or place of work, at a time that suits you – it takes away all the pain and hassle of finding a bodyshop, booking it in and then being car-less for a day or more.’

David currently operates three vans; Simon Homer and Dan Lyons are the paintwork specialists, while Dan Hallam specialises in bringing alloy wheels back to their original glory. He is also currently in the process of adding a fourth technician to the business; who is completing the intensive ‘Head Office’ training required.

‘The real joy of being part of a nationwide franchise is that all the technicians are given intensive and ongoing training,’ says David. ‘We’re part of a nationwide organisation, with all the benefits that this brings, but for our customers, they know that they’re dealing with a chap who lives locally, who is embedded in his – their - community.’

We all know the frustration when that smallest of scrapes results in a scratch that won’t rub out with a cloth and a bit of spit, and for many of us with cars that have pearl or metallic paint, the heart sinks when we realise we need to bring in an expert. With Revive, paint matching and mixing happens right there, on your driveway.

Great British Life: Simon HomerSimon Homer (Image: Archant)

‘Paint mixing to get an absolute colour match is a given with Revive. We use state of the art equipment and the accuracy of the match is the best there is. We weigh each paint component to milligrams to get an exact match to the manufacturer’s published paint codes. And it takes real skill to prepare damaged bodywork before it’s sprayed. I’ve watched Simon at work and it’s a delicate task to have it as smooth as when it left the factory. We have many loyal customers who use us time and again.’

This is not to say that David’s customers are a clumsy bunch; in this part of the world car leasing is quite common, and sending it back as pristine as it was delivered isn’t easy when two years of stone chips or kerbing those alloys have taken the shine off. I have had cause to use Revive myself on more than one occasion (and only one of these was a sneaky don’t-tell-the-husband job after I reversed our brand new SUV into a low wall and did something rather too visible to the back end. He still doesn’t know, that’s how quick and easy and financially painless it was to get it fixed.)

‘The pain and hassle of booking into body shops – not to mention the sometimes outrageous pricing – means that often people leave scratches or chips on cars that then affect their value or cost you when you hand it back. It’s just so easy to give us a call and get it sorted.’

I’ll second that. Not to mention escaping stony stares over the dinner table, ladies.

Bodywork (Simon Homer): 07967 322 420 | Alloy Wheels (Dan Hallam): 07967 322 421| revive-uk.com