Zahid tests market with latest venture

OLDHAM has a new MoT testing station for minibuses and commercial vehicles.

A and S Motors has opened in Unit Two, Kelsall Street, Westwood, to tackle a market that has been largely ignored in Oldham.

Zahid Akhtar, the first Asian businessman to open an MoT Class Four testing station for cars and light commercial vehicles in the borough, is behind the venture.

He has invested £80,000 to transform the premises off Featherstall Road South into a state-of-the-art centre, alongside a tyre and exhaust fitting bay.

Mr Akhtar (62), from Hollinwood, who has business interests in Hollinwood plus the A and S Motor Factors business in Manchester Street, which he owns jointly with his wife Shezad, is joined in the new venture by two of his six sons, Nasar and Faisal. Three of his children are professionals — an accountant, a dentist and one in the legal profession — and the other runs his own business.

Arriving in this country from Pakistan, Mr Akhtar worked on the buses but took a motor mechanic course at college and set up his own repairs and MoT testing station.

For many years he serviced vehicles for the Asian community from all over the North-West.

A founder member of the Asian Business Association in Oldham, Mr Akhtar, who remains the organisation’s treasurer, is determined to make a success of his new venture.

He said: “This country has been good to me and my family and intend to continue putting something back and this service is part of that process.”