7:30 am, April 12, 2024
For the Moncurs, football has been the family business for more than 40 years.
The journey began way back in 1980 when John Moncur joined Tottenham Hotspur as a scout, going on to spend 25 years with the club.
His son, also named John, then enjoyed a stellar playing career at the likes of Spurs, Portsmouth and Swindon before a hugely successful nine-year stint at West Ham.
It is a proud tradition which has been passed through the generations with oldest son George now turning out in League 1 for Leyton Orient.
His younger brother, Freddy, also played for the club as a youngster but after dropping into the non-league game has now turned his hand to the motor trade.
Freddy, 27, says he ‘caught the bug’ almost as soon as he started buying and selling cars and in 2020 he and his father set up JFM Cars in Woodford, Essex.
The business is very much a family affair with John Sr, John, George and Freddy all fulfilling roles.
The outfit has even recently taken on the youngest Moncur son, Timmy, who has also worked as a coach within the Tottenham ranks.
Despite having limited experience of the motor trade going into the venture, the business has proved to be a huge hit with Freddy, who runs the company day-to-day, putting the popularity down to the firm’s personal, family-centred approach.
Explaining how he got into the used car industry, he told Car Dealer: ‘Growing up I didn’t even like cars. I never really had any interest in them at all.
‘I left school at 16 and was a pro at Orient for four years before I signed for Ebbsfleet. While I was there, I joined up with an old family friend who was doing the football as well but had also joined a company up north and was franchising the business.
‘We were just travelling in one day and he mentioned that he was working with cars and asked if I’d want to do some work with him.
‘It just went from there, with him talking me through it but once I got that first deal, I just got a bug. Football was the only thing that had ever given me that and all of a sudden that was me.
‘I worked for that company for about two years but it sort of got to the point that I was doing so much work for next to nothing that my Dad said why don’t go go it on our own.’
He added: ‘We are a family run business and at the forefront customer service is our main thing. We try and offer the best service to people and do things a little bit different.’
On the JFM website, Freddy’s grandfather – John Sr – is listed as a transport manager, while his father is named as a director and older brother George as part of the sales team.
Younger brother Timmy completes the family line-up, with the title of sales manager.
The family have even managed to utilise their football connections to sell one car to George’s Leyton Orient teammate, Joe Pigott.
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‘We took my younger brother on while he was working for a coach at Spurs,’ Freddy said.
‘My Dad’s mainly the delivery driver and he does more miles now than when he played! Then I’m in the office all day with my little brother as well.
‘He does a lot of the driving around and the prep stuff while I’m predominantly in the office handling sales.’
‘You set a target every week and you work to achieve that’
From the outside, it may seem that the worlds of used car sales and professional football could not be further away, but Freddy believes he has taken a lot of transferable skills from the beautiful game.
Primarily, he says that growing up in and around dressing rooms gave him a gift for dealing with people, which helps when handling customers.
It’s an approach which has not gone unnoticed as the midfielder was given highly commended status in our Future Star Category at the 2022 Car Dealer Used Car Awards.
Freddy said: ‘The big thing I learnt from football was how to interact with people. Then there’s also the hard work and the graft that you need in both.
‘They would be the two most similar things, I would say. You set a target every week and you work to achieve that.’
John Moncur (PA Images)
JFM currently stocks vehicles ranging from small family hatchbacks to vans and even more luxury models.
Looking ahead, Freddy wants the business to continue growing but has vowed not to lose sight of what has made the company successful.
‘We want to grow but we don’t want to get too big,’ he told Car Dealer. ‘We want to be able to keep it so that every customer matters to us.
‘We need that repeat custom and every customer should feel like they’re really important, which maybe they don’t always with a huge corporate corporation.
‘We don’t want to get too big or lose sight of why we started the business in the first place.
‘Having said that, it’s been a really quick growth and it’s getting bigger all the time.’
