A GARAGE owner said he will never sell his business, despite being offered millions of pounds every year by supermarket chain Aldi.

John Smith has run Broadway Motors, in Wallingford Street, Wantage, since his father Ben Smith founded it in 1958.

He now runs it with his son John, daughter Helen Shepherd and nephews Cliff and Chris.

He said the family gets three or four offers for the site each year from care home firms, housing developers and supermarkets.

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Mr Smith, 78, said: “We get approached every year to see if we will sell it, but my father build this garage.

“I just tell people I’ll be 79 in May and there’s too much of my old man floating around the place, so the answer is ‘no’.”

He said: “Aldi is very persistent. They have told me ‘we will buy it from you Mr Smith’, and I say ‘you might when I’m six feet down, but not before’.

“They have been trying for three or four years. They’re offering a few million. I get housing developers as well, but the answer is always no.”

Mr Smith spoke after Motorlux owner Richard Shepherd, who is also Mr Smith’s son-in-law, revealed plans to sell his Volvo dealership in Newbury Street to a housing developer.

Mr Shepherd, whose wife Helen, Mr Smith’s daughter, works at Broadway Motors, said it was a “tragedy” he was having to sell his business, which has been a garage for 70 years.

Volvo has terminated Mr Shepherd’s franchise, because it said there was no longer a market for the brand in the area.

Mr Smith, who lives in Chain Hill, Wantage, said the garage was so attractive to developers because it was the “biggest site close to the town centre”.

He said: “They always say to me ‘if you sell up, you could move out of town’ but I’m of the old school, I believe you need chimney pots around you. If I moved out to Grove Technology Park, every customer would have to drive a mile-and-a-half to get to us.”

The family also owns more than 5,000 acres of farmland around Wantage, industrial estates at Challow and Stanford in the Vale and property in Faringdon, Wantage and Didcot.

Mr Smith said he hoped his family would carry on Broadway Motors after him, but admitted: “things do change”.

He added: “But I think as long as I’m here, it won’t happen.

“If someone offered me £100m it might tempt me. That would be worth listening to.”

Aldi did not respond to a request for comment.

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