The Flying Spares elevator pitch: why ‘recycle to preserve’ is a win-win-win

So, what do you do? It’s a deceptively simple question, with advocates of the elevator pitch insisting that the answer must always be short, nutshelled in under 20 seconds.

Flying Spares is, of course, the world’s largest independent supplier of new, recycled, and reconditioned Rolls-Royce and Bentley parts. But that doesn’t explain why we were founded, or how we go about it.

We invited opinion from across the company and, eventually, settled on this: At Flying Spares we recycle to preserve (or #Recycle2Preserve for the social media savvy).

The slightly longer version is: We source and recycle post-1946 Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars in order to preserve as much original Rolls-Royce and Bentley engineering as possible.

Of the 45 cars we purchased last year – see this short compilation video – many were sold for restoration, while others – you can probably guess which ones! – have been carefully dismantled.

A good example is this 1971 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. It was way beyond economical repair, so it became a donor car, bolstering our stocks of rare and no longer available parts. The complete roof section was snapped-up within a week of going on sale.

Flying Spares director, Neil Arman, explained: “As we shifted to Employee Ownership in 2020, with company founders Ben and Lucy stepping back from the business, we had a lot of discussions about maintaining their ethos.

“It boiled down to something Ben told me years ago: ‘By dismantling one wrecked Rolls-Royce or Bentley we keep another six on the road’. The new ‘recycle to preserve’ motto reflects the fact that we know more and care more about these cars than almost anyone.

"It recognises that some cars are beyond repair – those badly damaged in crashes or fires, or just sadly neglected – while highlighting our aim to save as much as we can.

“We scour the globe for parts, for example, from specialist garages that are shutting down, and we also buy cars in all states of disrepair. If they can be resold as restoration projects, brilliant. If not, they go for dismantling at our Market Bosworth HQ.

“Currently, around 95% of the parts we strip are recycled, and we’re continually working to improve this number. We go to extraordinary lengths, like taking apart tappets to see if any component can be reused.

“Every part is assessed and if it is borderline we always try to rescue it. Better still, we do ever more of this work in-house in our state-of the-art Technical Services Division workshop.

“We transform smashed-up, burnt-out, rotting Rolls-Royces and Bentleys into quality recycled parts – great for vehicle authenticity and environmental sustainability, not to mention significantly cheaper than new parts. It’s a win-win-win.”