Last year, Sunday Times Rich Lister Sukhpal Ahluwalia, who sold Euro Car Parts for £280 million in 2011, bought the country’s second biggest car parts company, GSF Car Parts. He now appears to be on a mission to grind his old firm into the dust by poaching their staff, having just nabbed about 30 ex-ECP employees as he considers opening 10 new stores in the capital over the next year.
A penchant for spice seems to be the common thread enticing ECP staff to jump ship. Last night, Ahluwalia hosted a curry-eating competition in Wembley — where new recruits eat hotter and hotter dishes. It starts with the bland and boring “ECP butter chicken”, which captures their “bland & boring culture”, one senior person at the firm says, and it’ll end with the “GSF Sizzler”.
One contender said the competition was “classic Sukhpal”.
And a senior team member at GSF added: “Let’s hope the ECP isn’t here undercover. If they tasted the GSF Sizzler, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to stand the heat. Cor blimey, that’ll hurt when it comes out the other end!”
Spy hopes they were given today off to recover.