The FAB Promise

Company History

FAB has been in the BMW parts business since being founded in 1991.  Over the last 19 years we have established ourselves as one of the largest suppliers of used BMW spare parts in the UK.  FAB employs 19 people and makes over 9,500 shipments of BMW parts a year, shipping as far a field as Australia, Argentina and Hong Kong.  Our customer base includes D.I.Y motorists, garages, motor factors and many large parts distributors.  It has been due to the hard work and commitment of our staff which has enabled us to get to where we are today.

The FAB story began in 1991 when Chris Ball set to work on his entrepreneurial skills and started breaking BMWs on his driveway.  It soon became clear that there was sufficient market for expansion.  Chris rented a small industrial unit in the village of Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean, it was shabby but cheap!

It was not long before Chris took on his first member of staff, then another.  Turnover was increasing slowly and the business was progressing steadily.  Chris was never one for administration, so in July 1994 Jason Cross came on board.  Coming from a sales background, Jason quickly put systems in place to let the business increase its rate of growth successfully.

The next four years were a constant battle, with 10-12 hours days the norm.  We soon occupied the three adjoining units.  During this time considerable investment was made in the engineering side of the business, therefore increasing the output of remanufactured cylinder heads and engines. 

It was early in ’98 that the decision was made to separate the engineering side of the business from the dismantlers.  This was when FAB Engineering Ltd was formed.  Chris took the helm of FAB Engineering Ltd and Jason of FAB Recycling Ltd.

February 1997 saw the arrival of FAB Recyclings sales and finance director, Jon Hancock, and then shortly after Lesley Perry - otherwise known as super secretary!  In 2000 Adrian Edmunds our parts director joined the team and then in 2001 Jason Bishop joined as our director of recycling.  The management team at FAB Recycling was complete. 

Eventually it became time to say good bye to Lydbrook and move to a 2.5 acre site in Cinderford.  That was in 2003; the journey from driveway to recycling centre took just 12 years.  Today, we are still at our Cinderford site and we are still expanding thanks to an excellent team of staff and our many loyal customers.

As far as our web presence goes, FAB Recycling created a very successful website developed by David Heidenstam, but it had no eccommerce element.  In 2007 FAB Recycling decided to relaunch fabdirect and the site you see today was born.  Our new site has enabled us to reach an even wider customer base and continue the expansion of FAB whilst maintaining our high standards that has got us to where we are today.     

Chris Ball is still an non-executive director of FAB Recycling.  Without Chris’s vision and determination in those early days, none of us would be here at FAB today.