Ben Holgate meets a businessman who first valeted cars – but turned his focus to jets 

Serendipity is as important to business success as cash flow. So it proved for 24-year-old corporate jet cleaning entrepreneur Stefan Murphy when he was setting up his first enterprise straight out of school.

The former Gosford Hill School student had started his own car valet business out of his father Chris’s garage in Woodstock. He recalled: “Dad said: ‘Why don’t you set up on your own, doing your own thing?’”

Murphy junior quickly built up a list of clients, travelling beyond his dad’s car repair workshop and taking on two employees.

One of his customers was Dustin Dryden, the founder of corporate jet company Hangar 8, which was based at Oxford Airport, and the owner of a BMW X5 that required cleaning.

Mr Dryden suggested he clean some of Hangar8’s corporate jets. By 2010, most of Mr Murphy’s work was coming through aeroplanes rather than cars.

“It was a real steady business to start off with,” said Mr Murphy of Up and Away Aviation, of which he is the sole shareholder. “It grew organically.”

Indeed, the growth was so steady that last month Mr Murphy made his first acquisition, funded entirely, he said, by cash flow.

Up and Away purchased for an undisclosed price a competitor, Avialogistics, which was a subsidiary of corporate jet fleet owner Gama Aviation.

Mr Murphy said the merger had increased his staff from seven to 16 (including himself) and that he expected annual turnover to rise by about 50 per cent to £850,000.

As with his original shift from cleaning cars to jets, serendipity also played a role in the merger. In December 2014, it was announced that Gama Aviation, another corporate jet fleet owner, would acquire Hangar8.

Upon hearing the news, Mr Murphy said he became concerned, because at that stage about one-fifth of Up and Away’s turnover was derived from Hangar8 and Gama Aviation owned a competitor, Avialogistics.

“There was a joke made by Dustin, who said: ‘Do you want to buy our business?’”

But what started as a joke quickly turned serious. Mr Murphy realised that Avialogistics was complementary to Up and Away in two key respects.

Firstly, the Gama subsidiary was based at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire, which is the UK’s only dedicated corporate jet airport. Up and Away’s base has been at Oxford Airport, although Mr Murphy’s company has expanded to serve clients at other airports as far flung as Birmingham, Luton and Stansted.

Secondly, Avialogistics had a different list of clients.

The Gama division also came with additional staff at a time when Up and Away was stretched for manpower in serving a growing number of clients, and brought with it cleaning equipment.

“I spoke to my father and he said: ‘Go and do what you think is right’.”

So Mr Murphy entered negotiations for his own takeover in January 2015 and finalised the deal six months later.

Duncan Daines, group chief marketing officer for Gama Aviation, said his firm was “very impressed in the way Stefan had structured his business”. He added: “He’s extremely driven and very customer-focused. He understands the strengths and virtues of having sound customer relations.”

Gama Aviation also “wanted to ensure one of our assets went to a good home”.

Mr Murphy explained how aviation detailing – his firm cleans both corporate jets and helicopters – is specialised, given that his cleaners work within a highly regulated sector. Staff are required to have some knowledge about the aircraft they are cleaning because a lever mistakenly pushed in a cockpit or a rag mistakenly left in an engine on the wing can be dangerous. Training for staff can take six to nine months.

Mr Murphy attributes his parents, Chris and Sharon Murphy, with whom he still lives in Hampton Poyle, near Kidlington, for passing on a passion for business. His parents ran their own businesses, mainly in wholesale, and his father owned a series of garages that also sold car accessories. Chris Murphy currently owns Kidlington Garage, which sells used cars plus offers servicing and repairs.

Stefan Murphy said corporate jet cleaning was priced mainly for labour – his firm carries little stock. Earnings margins (revenue less operating expenses) were typically between 40 per cent and 50 per cent in the industry, he said.

He intends to continue to grow the business both organically and through additional mergers, and already has his sights on diversifying.

“In the next couple of years we want to go into catering.”