If you’ve ever been to our Emporium, you’ve probably met Tom, whose career at Caffeine&Machine started as a customer and quickly moved to Senior Retail Assistant.
There’s a good chance you’ve met Tom Searle if you’ve stopped by the C&M Emporium. Fresh-faced, effervescent, and endlessly chatty, he’s our Senior Retail Assistant. You can often find him manning the till in the Emporium, being highly enthusiastic about old Peugeots, and drinking a quite frankly alarming number of soya flat whites. We had a quick catch-up about his journey at C&M and his eclectic taste in cars.
How did you get involved with C&M?
“I came as a customer quite a lot with my dad, my uncle, and my mates, and then applied for a job vacancy. I started out working Front of House and then transferred to the Emporium, and just worked really hard from there.”
What do you enjoy about working at C&M?
“There are a lot of things. I’d say the bond between the staff – we’re like a big family – and all the interesting people you meet from different walks of life.”
Where do you want your career to go from here?
“I honestly have no clue. I’m very much living in the moment – I know you’ve got to think about your future, but I’m just trying to enjoy my 20s.”
What do you drive at the moment, and why?
“I’ve got a Peugeot 306 D Turbo in Kingfisher Green that’ll soon be on a set of TSW Stealths. I’ve got a silver Mazda RX-8 with a sports exhaust, I’ve got a Discovery 2, and I’ve got another 306 that I built as a targa rally car, but I blew the engine up.”
Which is your favourite?
“I like the RX-8, but it’s not the most practical. I’ve never had any problems with it, despite what everybody says online – it’s always other cars that have broken while I’ve owned it. I do like the D Turbo, just because nobody cares about it apart from a very select group of people, and it’s a very interesting colour.”
What’s your dream car?
“That’s a tough one. Is it really weird to say something niche?”
Absolutely not.
“I’m not really a big supercar person. I want a 205 GTi, with a 405 Mi16 engine on twin Weber 45s. I’d also really like an Escort Cosworth, or a V8 Lotus Esprit as well. Those are the three.”