A focus on staff wellbeing saw Ashford-based independent garage D&D Autos crowned the best in the UK at a leading industry award ceremony.
The garage won the ‘Workplace Health & Wellbeing Award’ in the Aftermarket Top Garage 2025 Awards, marking a hat-trick of successes over the past three years in the high-profile competition.
D&D Autos won the overall ‘Top Garage Award’ (10+ employees) last year and was a runner-up in 2023 and again this year, while Kevin Shilling narrowly missed out on the ‘Service Adviser’ crown in both 2024 and 2025, receiving a ‘Finalist Award’ this year and last.
15 employees attended the presentation evening in Coventry to collect this year’s three awards, with operations manager Lorraine Fuller coming away inspired to encourage one of the garage’s younger trainees to enter the newly introduced ‘Top Apprentice’ category next year.
Lorraine and her brothers Matthew and Richard are the second generation of the family-run business, set up by founder Derek Pestridge and his wife Margaret.
Lorraine said the business had taken on a number of apprentices in recent years, with all of them staying on after qualifying. “It’s another category I think we have a great chance of doing well in,” she said.
Staff wellbeing at D&D Autos, based in Moat Way, Ashford, is one of the responsibilities of Kimberley Pestridge, who also looks after HR and training. She is a trained mental health first aider and operates an ‘open door’ policy that encourages staff to talk about any issues that are bothering them.
Kimberley said: “We understand that our employees are our most important resource and we have always set out to be a good local employer.
“We organise team and family events, and workplace challenges, and we make it clear that we are here to support our people if they need help. We are also well aware that staff retention is important, which is why we do our best for them.
“We are proud that our efforts have been reflected in winning the workplace health and wellbeing award.”
The awards were sponsored by Ben Support for Life, a charity that was set up 120 years ago to support the automotive industry.
