Victoria, B.C. — In 1980, Little Valley Restorations started small but as years went on, the small hobby grew into a celebrated business in the community.
Little Valley Restorations is family owned and operated by John and Jackie Neil. The pair bought the land that the collision centre sits on with the intention of making it a home.
At the beginning of 1980, John worked out of a small two bay garage doing hobby work but as time passed he had more work than he could keep up with; John believed it was time he turned his hobby into a business.
“I came home and told Jackie I quit my job. She almost killed me,” John said. “With a $30,000 loan from the bank, I built the first part of the shop and started working on all these cars. Then I needed some help, so I hired a young guy named Andrew, who’s still here after 40 years.”
As the business kept growing, the small two-bay garage turned into a small collision centre with a total of 14 employees, and as years passed, John had to make improvements and build a bigger shop. He then moved himself and his family into a log cabin at the back of the property where they now live.
According to Sheena and Travis, they had a lovely childhood growing up in Little Valley. When Travis was a young boy he used to sell chips, chocolate and pop to the employees in the lunchroom.
As the kids got older they would start to work at their father’s business. Travis works in the shop, Sheena works bookkeeping and accounting; and Janna works graphic design, social media and the website.
One of the reasons why Little Valley has such a good reputation in the town is because the family business has played a big role in mentoring young auto-body technicians and providing opportunities for training.
The shop is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) certified to work on several vehicle brands. Little Valley is also a ICBC Glass Express certified shop – the only auto-body repair shop from Duncan to Nanaimo with this level of auto glass certification; and lastly, their technicians are I-CAR Gold and Platinum certified – the highest possible standard of training for collision repair.
For the last 10 years, Little Valley has received nine AutoCheck awards from ICBC.
In the last few years environmental safety and sustainability have become a massive trend in the Industry. Due to this, John switched to environmentally sustainable paint and with the switch John said it’s comparable to 5,000 vehicles a year worth of emissions off the road.
“We try to recycle as much as we can, all of our metals, solvents, and cardboard. All the things that can be recycled get recycled,” John said.
As John’s gotten older he said he’s looking forward to being able to spend more time at their summer property working on hobby projects.
40 years later and Little Valley Restoration is still kicking. Congratulations to the Ladysmith family for decades of success.
