I’m now proud to say that we’ve been in business 14 years and it’s a very different landscape today than it was back in October 2003. Originally, I got into modified cars through my own passion for my first ever car, a Citroen Saxo. In 2001, these were the arguably the hottest hatches around and I spent many years constantly modifying my vehicle. Gaining contacts along the way, I started to understand there were some gaps in the industry.
Finding The Gap:
My original business, G.S Motorsport focused on all modified car parts, ranging from Lexus lights through to exhausts. In 2003 this type of modification was all the rage, but the markets were changing fast. The introduction of eBay and various online auction websites meant that competition became intense.
As the years went on, I realised that some particular product groups needed a lot more expert advice and tailored information than others. Seats, harnesses and motorsport safety equipment in particular, as when purchasing this kind of product, understandably it’s extremely important to get it right as it can be the difference between life and death in an incident.
From this point, I set up two websites specialising in these products. SportSeats4U and BigBrakes4U. These two websites focused heavily on providing detailed information about each set product group and ensuring that I provided the most accurate information I could about each market type.
From Home To Showroom:
I’d moved from my bedroom at my parents’ house to my own house and holding stock in my garage, but as sales started to increase and my product database increased in 2010, I realised that I needed help and I needed a shop.
With a few years of planning, I secured a small local business unit to move into and start displaying the products that I was working with. After some hard work getting that set up, with a lot of help from friends and family, I opened the shop and re-branded the business as GSM Performance to tie in all the products that I was focusing on.
Time To Find Staff:
I quickly realised sitting in the shop on my own day by day attempting to do everything wasn’t very efficient, so it was time to expand and get help. I reached out to the local community for an apprentice as I wanted to train someone up that could learn everything from scratch and along the way learn new skills. This was the first step to where we are today with five apprenticeships completed.
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 Felix Stewart |
 Amy Cheetham |
 Ben Marriott |
 Joanna Collis |
Garreth SleighConstant Development:
Since opening the shop in 2012, I’ve focused on constantly developing GSM Performance around the customer experience, including their needs requirements. I feel this is the most important part of what we do and the services we offer in our showroom compliment that in each and every way.
Our expansion into racewear and helmets was a natural progression from the seats, harnesses and roll cages that we have previously focused on and we now aim our product lines and business around the safety of the driver. At the end of the day however powerful your car is, however much fun you want to have in the world of motorsport, you’ve got to walk away from each and every event, and what we do is critical to ensuring your safety.
Proud To Be Serving You:
We’re all very proud of what we do here and we all enjoy working in the motorsport industry. When you’re ready for some new seats and harnesses or a race suit and helmet, please do contact us. My dedicated team & I will be more than happy to help with your enquiry.
I personally thank everyone for their business and look forward to many years ahead.
Garreth Sleigh.
