NEW TEAM: The new management team at Boarhunt, Mick Puleston, Glynn Daniels, Robert Doney and Robin Doney.

SOUTH coast-based vehicle recovery firm Boarhunt Garage has been on the acquisition trail with the takeover of Central Garage.

The joint organisation is now operating under one banner and Boarhunt managing director Robin Doney said the deal would safeguard jobs having created the most extensive recovery firm of its kind on the South Coast.

Already Hampshire's largest specialist recovery company, Boarhunt Garage, is a family firm set up in 1964 and now employs 100 people.

It is based at Fareham's Fort Wallington, and the Central Garage acquisition gives the company an additional base on the Airport Industrial Estate at Portsmouth.

Boarhunt Garage's main activity is in vehicle recovery and rescue, working with the emergency services and on major blue chip accounts with key motoring organisations.

The purchase of Central Garage has already boosted the Boarhunt fleet to 60 vehicles and the company now covers light and heavy recovery services from Southampton to Winchester and into West Sussex.

The company's haulage and workshop businesses will be unaffected by the changes, and the Central Garage work-force will continue to cover the established contracts in the Portsmouth area.

"Central Garage has been a very successful company and we have been looking at taking it under our wing for several years,'' said Mr Doney.

"Our business in Fareham has grown to such an extent that it made sense to consolidate locally, and the purchase of Central Garage is good for everyone involved.''

He said the deal means that Boarhunt can now offer a swifter recovery service to customers in Portsmouth from facilities within the city, without stretching resources from our commitments across the rest of the county.

Report by Alyson Marlow

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.