PAUL BOWKER, 33, is director of the Bowker BMW and MINI dealerships in Accrington and Preston. He started with the firm during school holidays and worked his way through the ranks of the family-owned business. While other members of the Bowker clan operate the Bowker haulage business, which has more than 200 trailers on the road, Paul's lifelong passion has been for cars.

JOB

My dad, Ken, bought the dealerships in 1984 when I was 16. I saved my pocket money to buy a moped so I could get to the Accrington site and work as a car valeter during school holidays. One thing's for sure - there was no special treatment for me because I was in the family!

REAL JOB

After school, I went to what is now the University of Central Lancashire at Preston and took an HND in Mechanical Engineering and Design. I continued to work at Bowker during the holidays and, once I graduated, I took work experience at Stephen James, a BMW dealership in London, before returning to Accrington where I worked for two years in the after-sales side as a motor technician. It gave me a good grounding in vehicles - but the lads kept me on my toes and I had to work extra hard because of my family connections.

FULL TIME JOB

After two years of being a technician, I worked as a delivery driver and then did my fair share of shelf-stacking in the parts department, all of which gave me a broad understanding of the business side of car dealerships. More importantly, I knew what it was like from the perspective of the staff.

In the late 80s, I became responsible for developing our client database and creating a structured system of customer contacting and follow-ups. In the mid 90s, I was promoted to director and am now responsible for the management of both dealerships.

CAR

After the Kawasaki KE50 moped, which I fell off too many times, I bought an MG Midget before getting my first BMW, an old 2002 which came to Bowker as a part-exchange. I swanned about in that like I was king of the road!

HOME

I had a beautiful cottage on Billinge End Road, Blackburn, almost opposite the Clog and Billy pub. It was a great place to live and the views to the Lake District and the Fylde Coast were fantastic. My neighbour always said you could see the sun glinting off the ships at Barrow, but that was usually after a trip across the road . . .

BUSINESS

I've always worked with Bowker BMW and MINI.

COCK-UP

At a car auction, I viewed a very nice black BMW 318i which I wanted to bid for. I nipped off for a hot dog and heard on the Tannoy that a black 318i was the next lot, rushed back and bought it.

Unfortunately there were two on sale that night and I bought one that had seen somewhat better days.

BIG DEAL

I sold Alan Shearer his first car when he was signed by Blackburn Rovers, a BMW 320 Coupe. I also set up the original fleet car deal with Airtours and we've since sold hundreds of vehicles to them. More recently, I developed our MINI sites at Accrington and Preston and we're one of only a

handful of firms in the UK to have invested in MINI showrooms that are separate from the BMW operations. We've ploughed nearly half a million pounds into that.

EMPLOYEE

I hired Barry Heard as a technician seven years ago and he's still with us. In fact, a lot of the people who started when I did are still with the firm: Tony Lowe, our Accrington managing director; Graham Chillingworth, our parts and marketing manager and Stuart Rose, our assistant service manager. Everyone's on first name terms and the atmosphere, facilities - and parties! - are second to none.

MILLION

Certainly not yet! It's not something I dwell on - there's too much work to be done.