INTERVIEW JONATHAN TAIT AND PAUL BRIGHTMAN
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RANMORE SERVICE AND ENGINEERING Nearly 40 years after founding Royce Service and Engineering with Patrick Lloyd-Jacob, Paul Brightman passes the torch to Jonathan Tait, as Royce becomes Ranmore and the business lives on P H OTO G R A P H Y: L AU R I E G R I F F I T H S
Let’s begin with the latest news – Jonathan, can you tell us about the re-launch of the business and how you became involved? JT: I live locally to RS&E and I was looking for somewhere to store my Bristol, which I ended up doing with them. While I was there I noticed a really exceptional Bentley Turbo RT for sale with only 5000 miles on the clock. My business partner Humaid Masaood had been looking for one so I told him
Jonathan Tait (left) looks forward to building on all that Paul Brightman (right) has created at RS&E
about it. Soon after, I saw they had an Arnage that I liked, so I bought that too. Through all this, I got to know Paul and Patrick and felt they were honest and open, and I eventually learned they’d got to the stage in life where they would like to ease themselves out of the business over a few years. Humaid and I looked at the very loyal team of staff and the equally loyal customer base, and in February this year we bought the company. It’s re-launched
as Ranmore Service and Engineering, so we keep the same initials: RS&E. Paul Brightman and Patrick Lloyd-Jacob aren’t disappearing quite yet, I hear. What kind of changes can customers expect? JT: That’s right, Paul and Patrick will remain for a year or two to ease the transition and make sure customers know the same standards of service are going to continue. We don’t want to change the business very much; the core of what RS&E does is in the workshop and it’ll remain that way, with some investment to come that should add some more technical staff and equipment. We will do some more car sales too, and we may bring in a separate sales manager, but the quality has to be right – we’re only happy to sell the cars we can stand behind. So it’ll still be a technology and engineering-led business. Going back to the early days, can you tell us how it all got started, Paul? PB: Patrick and I met in 1979 at Jack Barclay Ltd. They were taking on 16 apprentices from about 300 applicants and we both got onto that apprenticeship, which lasted while we went through a 3-year college course. When that came to an end we carried on at Jack Barclay but felt that the standard of care for the customer wasn’t always what it should have been in those days, and we wanted to start a business that could do that side of things better. Around that time there was a strike in the workshop, which was heavily
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