Hein Nel has been the owner of Starbreak Port Elizabeth since April 2014. Hein had been Branch/Regional Manager for large corporate companies in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth for more than 16 years. Together with
his wife Melisa daughter Jodi, he was relocated from Cape Town to PE in 2011 but by the end of 2012, disaster struck the family. Melisa became paralysed with Guillaine Barre Syndrome overnight and ended up spending
6 months in hospital. By the time she went home she was still very much paralysed in need of 24hr care and assistance. Hein was juggling every part his life up in the air at once, and he felt the need to make
some important decisions and possible changes to his life. Not only was his wife very ill and his daughter still very young at the time - his job had become increasingly demanding, requiring him to travel away
from home often. Hein felt immense pressure and wanted to find a way to provide for his family's needs by working from home, full-time. Good friends of the Nel's, Owen and Michelle Lottering (owners of Starbreak
Garden Route) mentioned to Hein that they were interested in buying a Starbreak franchise and Hein started investigating the option of buying the PE franchise. Although being a "franchise owner" was very much
unchartered territory for Hein, he did his due diligence and started trading on 1 April 2014. Starbreak PE now services 6 large dealerships and has 4 technicians on-site. Hein admits that the road has not always
been easy and he has met many obstacles along the way but his positive attitude, good administration skills, commitment to excellent service and building good relationships between himself, his technicians and
Dealership staff has brought him much success. When asked whether he would trade his franchise and home office for a corporate job and glass office with a view, he says "never - the coffee is too good at home"!
Hein has goals and plans of action in place to increase dealerships and to continue providing constant service excellence to clients in the months and years to come. Starbreak’s every increasing product line
in providing a full car care solution is one of our strengths in an ever changing market.