After spending most of his childhood in Cyprus and surviving the Turkish invasion, Peter returned to the UK at the age of 14 where he had to quickly learn the English language. He completed secondary education and went on to College where he undertook further studies and also qualified as a Vehicle Technician.
Peter has had a passion for cars from an early age and began his motor trade career working at Ford main dealer for several years before expanding his knowledge working at other, local main dealerships, including a vintage car supplier, where he acquired valuable experience working on many different makes, models and eras of vehicles. He decided to go self-employed in 1990 as a mobile mechanic and, after building up a large customer base, mainly through recommendation, decided to open his first garage in 1995 in Lower Bemerton. Always proud of his Greek heritage, he named it ‘Athena Garage’.
After a few years building up the business, Peter moved to more prominent premises on Churchfields Industrial Estate and, in 2009, moved to larger premises at his current location on Loyal Trade Business Park where he qualified as an MoT Inspector and converted the garage to an MoT Centre.
Peter prides himself on keeping a smart, clean garage and being renowned for having carpet inside! He wanted to provide a garage where customers would want to go and is proud to provide quality workmanship and be trusted by his customers and fellow traders who will only go to him and who recommend him to others. Some of his regular customers have been going to him since he first opened on Lower Bemerton two decades ago and others travel long distances to go to him because they do not want or trust anyone else to work on their cars!
Peter always looks forward to welcoming new and existing customers to ‘Athena Garage’!