A family-run car repairs business with roots in Poland and Germany is aiming to break into the market in Dundee.
Piotr Struminski and Marcin Lawniczak set up JPM Dundee DPF Services, which offers car engine cleaning services.
It is based at Balfield Road and offers a range of services, including cleaning diesel particulate filters (DPF) in vehicles.
What does the business do?
JPM Dundee DPF Services is a specialist company with an innovative service for cleaning a wide range of filters for vehicles, plants and equipment, power systems and emission components.
Our DPF cleaning service is a professional treatment to clean the build-up of soot and ash.
We provide the only professional long-term solution for DPF problems other than costly replacement.
Removing or cutting a DPF is against the law and can also seriously affect the turbo charger performance, which will lead to less power.
We do not use any harsh chemicals to breakdown the soot, ash, engine oil and refrigerant fluid.
Instead we use cost-effective and environmentally-friendly detergents that are safe for catalytic filter cartridges.
The whole process takes a place in a closed circuit and does not emit any pollution into the atmosphere.
How and why did you start in business?
The idea came from Poland and Germany, where our oldest brother-in-law was successfully involved with a similar business.
We noticed vehicle owners in our area don’t have any other option than replace the DPFs, which can be very expensive.
My experience as an accountant assistant and my brother-in-law’s as a marketer allowed us to prepare the business plan and start our business smoothly.
How did you get to where you are today?
We started our business just over a year ago.
The first few months were very challenging with transporting the machine from Germany, finding the place to operate and deciding what we can offer to our customers.
However, we now have a great place to operate, satisfied customers and our business is growing fast.
Who has helped you along the way?
We couldn’t do what we do without the help of others.
Our families have provided much-needed support. We feel so lucky to have them in our lives.
We also have to thank Business Gateway Tayside for being there for us to talk things through.
How has Covid-19 impacted the business?
A lot of people warned us about it being an uncertain time to start a new business.
Our machine arrived at the beginning of February 2021, and we were ready to start our business but it wasn’t as easy as we thought.
Luckily, we had enough capital to survive over a couple of months. We also had a lot of ideas to present our service to garages and clients.
What’s been your biggest mistake?
We certainly made a few mistakes in the first months.
The biggest mistake was not spending enough time to understand the market and the customers we wanted to reach.
However, thanks to our regular and new customers, we now realise that we are going in the right direction.
What is your greatest achievement to date?
That we have managed, in a short time, to become well-known for what we do – evidenced by our partnerships with many mechanical workshops as well as close cooperation with Stagecoach East Region.
What do you hope to achieve?
There is an urgent need for the world to find a more sustainable path of development.
We would like our company to become even more recognisable as experts in the field of particulate filters.
We hope that our company will play an important role to effectively respond to the global challenge of reducing pollution from exhaust emissions.
Do you want to grow your team in the future?
We would like our company to continue to develop, which will allow us to hire new people in the near future.
We also want to create a team of people who contribute to building a brand that will be recognisable.
What is the hardest thing about running your own business?
One of the biggest challenges we face while running a business is remembering to take time to unplug and rest.
I think this is very important to make it a point to unplug at least once a week so we can regroup and recharge.
