Alistair Houghton meets HOWARD SAMUELS, managing director of Aspect Conversions

THE piece of pink carpet in a small wooden frame is more than just an eye-catching wall decoration – it weaves the tale of how Howard Samuels and Aspect Conversions have risen from back bedroom upstarts to market leaders with global ambitions.

That carpet comes from the back bedroom of the house in Lethbridge Road, Southport, where Howard Samuels and his wife, Jan, launched Aspect a decade ago to convert and sell wheelchair-accessible vehicles.

Last month, the company launched its new WAV-Evolution vehicle, which Samuels is convinced will revolutionise his industry and move his business to another level.

With a turnover a shade under £4m, Aspect is a major player in its market, and Samuels is convinced WAV-Evolution will help it go global.

But the carpet still reminds him of the company’s early days and the envious competitors who thought he and Jan would never make it.

“In 1999, we were invited to go and see Motability in London,” he said. “In our industry, to be an accredited dealer with Motability is incredibly important because it’s a very important source of business.

“Other suppliers were at the meeting and I heard back from the branch director of Motability that one of them made a very unkind remark about me.

“They said, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing dealing with a one-man band working from home’.

“When we moved to this office, Jan cut out a piece of carpet from the room we worked in, framed it and put it on this wall.

“If you’re feeling too big for your boots and want to ground yourself, it’s good to look at that and see where it all started.

“But it’s also a cheeky two fingers to our competitors. It makes me chuckle and galvanises me at the same time.”

Business runs in Samuels’s family. His grandfather opened the Punch & Judy snack bar near Lime Street station in 1956, and he remembers family tales of stars such as Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard hiding in the manager’s office tucking into plates of egg and chips away from their hordes of fans.

Samuels, a former pupil at Liverpool’s King David High School, had planned a career in banking, but changed his plans after taking a summer job at Horsemans Vauxhall dealership in Speke.

The managing director offered Samuels the chance to try selling cars rather than returning to college.

Samuels said: “He said ‘You’ve got nothing to lose. If it doesn’t work out, you go back to college, but who knows where it might lead?’

“That was a fairly pivotal moment in my life.”

A year later came an even more pivotal moment when a customer asked about the Motability scheme.

“All the guys had seen him coming with an orange badge and scattered,” said Samuels, “as at the time the Motability scheme was deeply unpopular among sales staff because the paperwork was horrendous. In addition to that, there was little margin from the deal.

“It took me six months to get that person a car, partly due to my inexperience but also because the paperwork was that complicated.”