{"id":32286,"date":"2026-07-23T17:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=32286"},"modified":"2026-07-14T17:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T16:51:49","slug":"meet-ash-charline-mustafa-driver-hire-southampton-winchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/meet-ash-charline-mustafa-driver-hire-southampton-winchester\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Ash & Charline Mustafa \u2013 Driver Hire – Southampton & Winchester"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Ash and Charline Mustafa purchasing the Driver Hire Southampton franchise in 2019, driven by the need to increase their family income and provide a better life. Despite challenges like learning a new business and the pandemic, their dedication and strategic use of franchisor support has led to remarkable business growth and personal success.<\/h3>\n

Bold step<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Ash Mustafa and his wife, Charline, are partners both at work and at home.\u00a0 They took \u201ca bold step\u201d when, in 2019, they decided to buy the existing Driver Hire Southampton business.<\/p>\n

Their decision to buy a franchise was driven by their expanding family and they needed to upsize.\u00a0 Ash, who was a branch partner at an estate agency, and Charline, a part-time manager at a shoe shop, decided that the only way to up their income was to own a business.<\/p>\n

Ash knew that the low-risk entry into self-employment was through franchising, and their research led them to Driver Hire.\u00a0 \u201cWe were buying into a well-respected brand with a proven business model,\u201d says Ash.\u00a0 \u201cWe were buying the business to support our family \u2013 to give them a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than using the sale proceeds of their home towards a new house, they committed to buy the Driver Hire Southampton business (with additional funds from HSBC) and moved into a rented property.<\/p>\n

Early developments<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Their first year involved the usual: learning about the business and building client and candidate relationships. The second year introduced an unexpected challenge: the Covid pandemic.\u00a0 \u201cI remember thinking, I\u2019m in trouble here,\u201d says Ash.\u00a0 But after the initial shock, it became clear to Ash that there were still business opportunities about.\u00a0 \u201cAn older cousin and mentor told me to look on Covid as an opportunity.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Every week he phoned all his drivers and all his clients \u2013 around 200 individual calls \u2013 checking on their well-being.<\/p>\n

\u201cI contacted companies in the medical industry who were supplying pharmacies and hospitals. Also, there were firms delivering food to vulnerable people who were shielding at home,\u201d says Ash. Hard work \u2013 but worth the effort.\u00a0 During 2020\/21, turnover at Driver Hire Southampton held firm and achieved over \u00a31m turnover.<\/p>\n

Onwards and upwards<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The gradual relaxation of Covid restrictions enabled Ash to focus on further business building.\u00a0 \u201cBecause I\u2019d gone the extra mile during the pandemic we made a lot of friends,\u201d says Ash.<\/p>\n

What it had done was create a hugely loyal team of temporary drivers \u2013 the lifeblood of all successful recruitment businesses.\u00a0 He\u2019d kept them busy with regular work.\u00a0 As Ash puts it, \u201cAll part of giving something back to the community in which we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur success is built on doing everything Driver Hire suggests,\u201d says Ash. This includes getting 100% involved in Driver Hire\u2019s quarterly National Sales Days \u2013 when Driver Hire offices compete to secure the most client appointments.<\/p>\n

He also uses every opportunity to train and upskill his team of seven.\u00a0 He\u2019s put three staff members through Driver Hire\u2019s Sales Academy \u2013 a six-month sales training programme \u2013 all of whom \u2018graduated\u2019 with flying colours.<\/p>\n

Ash also makes full use of Driver Hire\u2019s IT systems, including new digital registration tools. This has enabled him to add a virtual territory in Winchester \u2013 bringing the office closer to clients and drivers in that area.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s helping us grow the business further,\u201d says Ash.<\/p>\n

Outstanding growth<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Over the past four years Ash, Charline, and the team have delivered outstanding levels of growth.\u00a0 They have transformed a good performing business generating circa \u00a31m annual turnover, to a great business achieving over \u00a33m turnover.\u00a0 And taken Driver Hire Southampton from 33rd in the Driver Hire league table to 4th place.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on success<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Commenting on their team\u2019s performance, Ash said, \u201cOur success has been down to the team and their training.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t lost a member of staff we have recruited, and our newest team member started 2 years ago.\u00a0 With the support of Driver Hire we developed people from different backgrounds into recruitment industry experts, each with a responsible role in our organisation.<\/p>\n

All our staff are dedicated, focused, and passionate about delivering great customer service, and they have all contributed significantly to our business growth.\u00a0 As they say, \u201cteamwork makes the dream work!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ash also comments, \u201cAs for our original aim \u2013 to build a better life for our family \u2013 we\u2019ve done that too, moving into a lovely family home.\u00a0 It\u2019s taken a lot of sweat, hard work, dedication and passion on our part to build this business \u2013 but it\u2019s been worth it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ash & Charline were BFA HSBC Franchisee of the Year Business Builder Finalists in 2024 \u2013 external recognition of their considerable achievements.<\/p>\n

If you have seen yourself in Ash & Charline\u2019s story and want to explore the Driver Hire opportunity, simply click\u00a0the button below, to get in touch.<\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ash and Charline Mustafa purchasing the Driver Hire Southampton franchise in 2019, driven by the need to increase their family income and provide a better life. Despite challenges like learning a new business and the pandemic, their dedication and strategic use of franchisor support has led to remarkable business growth and personal success. Bold step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":32287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-driver-hire","category-recruitment-franchises"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Ash-Charline-Mustafa-\u2013-DH-PR-Image-JUL26.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32288,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32286\/revisions\/32288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}