Published: Friday, 20th February, 2009 2:54pm

Broken stereos are music to Dave’s ears

by Judith Green

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WITH the credit crunch forcing more people to make do and mend, one business is going from strength-to-strength.

Green Home Electronics in Priestwood was launched 18 months ago by owner Dave Powell, who saw a gap in the market for recycling hi-fi and stereo systems.

Mr Powell's business is based at the Garth Business Park in Kennel Lane, where he does most of the work himself.

The 45-year-old, of Kennel Lane, said: "At the moment a lot of our clients come from all over the country but we really want to make the business more local and tell people in the community that we are here.

"We use this unit, which is a converted stable, as a base. I fix everything here and we store parts on site, and we can arrange for people to bring their hi-fis and stereos to us if it is easier for them.

"We sell a whole range of things online from basic systems and CD players under £100 to the more top of the range sets and record players."

Mr Powell's wife Debbie helps him and the pair often go on trips across the country to pick up broken equipment from people's homes and bring it back to base to get it fixed.

He added: "Once we get things back we do a visual inspection to see what is wrong with the equipment. Often things that people throw away fall into three categories.

"Sometimes it's something little that needs to be fixed which I've probably got a spare for, or if it's more major work, I will do that as well. There are of course things that even I can't fix and in that case we will use things again as spare parts."

Mr Powell is a qualified electronic engineer and completes full safety tests on all equipment he fixes before selling it online.

With the business now well up and running, Dave is looking forward to the future and is already planning to expand the business.

He said: "There are a lot of things we want to do in the future. We are thinking of buying the unit next door because we are running out of space. We want the business to get bigger and get out there in the community."

Visit www.greenhomeelectronics.co.uk or call 01344 300661 for more information.