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SUPERCAR MAN
Ferraghini Supercars: Meet Matthew Hakim the man who sells Lamborghinis and upgrades Rolls-Royces to Premier League stars
Crystal Palace stars Wilfried Zaha and Connor Wickham are among Matt's loyal customers
WHEN Wilfried Zaha decided he wanted his Lamborghini Aventador to have a one-of-a-kind custom roof installed he was only ever going to one man.
Matthew Hakim at in Kent.
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The Crystal Palace star, who has a fleet worth more than a £1million, has been going to Matt for years.
Zaha was introduced to him through Eagles team-mate Conor Wickham back when Ferraghini was based in Bromley.
Matt tells SunSport at his stunning new showroom in Maidstone: "Wilf looked and thought 'this is quite boring - I want starlights in my roof.'
"He rang me and said 'I've had a crazy thought, you think this could work? I want stars in the roof like the Rolls-Royce.'
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"I said I don't know, the roof is thin, I don't know how we're going to get a thousand fibre optic lights behind that. He just said 'if you can do it, do it'.
"I thought this will be a one of one, the only Aventador in the world with starlights, we have to do this.'"
However, as Matt explains, it was a tough job - although he got it done in the end.
"We took the ceiling out, we had to refabricate it, it didn't fit. It was near enough impossible," he adds.
"The fibre optics keep breaking every time we sealed it. We were spending thousands on lights that kept snapping, but we had to do it.
"We had to make a whole new roof for it."
Pulling up to an industrial unit in Maidstone, you wouldn't expect to see a car lovers nirvana behind reinforced steel shutters.
But that's exactly what 29-year-old Matt has built.
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To the untrained eye, there are 12 cars on show: four Lamborghinis, four Rolls-Royces, a Ferrari, a classic Porsche, a Range Rover and a Mercedes 4x4.
But, as Matt explains, some of these cars are absolute rarities - and are worth about £4million combined.
The turquoise Aventador is one of only four in the world with that colour. It's never been driven and has almost doubled in value to £450,000 just by sitting there.
The 2007 Murcielago is owned by a 'very famous' footballer, whose identity we can't reveal and is just one of 170 in the world. It's worth £500,000.
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A white Aventador, which retails at around £300,000, has a £100,000 bodykit attached to it while a Rolls-Royce Wraith, the current footballers' favourite, has a stunning two-tone wrap.
Another Wraith sits in the workshop half dismantled while Matt's team add the custom touches that make the cars so in-demand.
In the corner, the Mercedes 4x4 is actually a tuned Brabus version, only one of five in the world, and worth £200,000 - double what Matt paid for it when he bought it.
A grey Lamborghini Aventador also belongs to Matt - although he's looking to sell as the "mrs hates it".
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Matt may be living the high life now but it's taken a lot of hard work, and some major risks, to get here.
"I dropped out of school, I had no education," says Matt.
"I didn't listen, I knew where I wanted to go at a young age and it just wasn't relevant to me at the time.
"I wanted to get out there and make money, start a business and start to do something with my life."
Matt started to work with his brother as an electrician but he had "always" loved cars and knew he wanted to work in the industry in some way.
Despite his lack of qualifications, Matt talked himself into a job at an Audi dealership in Essex, which helped him learn about the business and taught him how to deal with customers.
But being a salesman was too "dog-eat-dog" with some of his colleagues out for themselves.
"They'd screw you over for a hundred quid."
It was always the after sales and customer care side of the business that Matt loved and after a couple of years in the job, he took a huge leap - quitting his job at 22 to start his own business.
He started off as a commission based salesman, selling cars for other people rather than holding his own stock, before introducing supercar servicing and then later customisation.
It was hardly an instant success, with the business lost money in the first year and only breaking even in the second.
In those early years, Matt would often work 18-hour days to ensure he was making good on his promises to clients.
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And when Matt finally did start making money, he avoided the temptation to spend, instead reinvesting in the business.
"It was tempting as I was a young man and I wanted to enjoy the money," says Matt, who wakes at 5am every morning.
"But I didn't. We employed new products, better materials, new staff, offered faster delivery times."
He built the company's reputation from word of mouth - by offering a better service than his rivals.
He adds: "In the beginning, I couldn't afford a website but it still grew and that's because I put so much hard work into it.
"People can do as much talking or have the best showroom in the world, but I still believe in hard work.
"If you make things happen they will happen. Going the extra mile for the customer.
"When I do that, my clients would then say, 'use Matt, he was out at midnight to drop this car off because he knew it was important I had it in the morning'.
"I'd get in at two in the morning in a cab. But I had to do that, because that's what will make the word travel.
"We do one car [for a client], we do 20 of their cars through their lives.
"And even if they leave us we are still there to give advice.
"We're very big on customer support, it's part of the service.
"I win a lot of business on being honest, trustworthy and living up to my promise.
"I'm very old school in the sense that if I shake someone's hand or agree to something I have to see it through.
"Even if it loses me money, I've already told the client.
"If I get something wrong it's my fault and I learn for next time."
After five years in Bromley, Matt moved to the sparkling unit in Maidstone that includes a showroom floor and open workshop behind floor-to-ceiling glass.
Clients, which include footballers, A-list actors, rappers and billionaire businessmen, can see exactly what is being done to their car, piece by piece.
There are offices and a boardroom filled with custom furniture to make the high-end clientele feel right at home.
Although Matt sells cars, customisation is where the business has really been booming since the move.
Ferraghini even works with a number of car manufacturers - including Rolls-Royce and Maserati - to offer potential buyers extra customisation options from the start.
Franchising the business has been discussed but Matt believes the quality of the work could drop if he is not there to oversee things day-to-day.
He does dream of opening a showroom in Miami, however, and a has just been started to give car lovers a behind-the-scenes look inside the business.
After years of being a car exclusively for the chauffeur-driven CEO, Rolls-Royce is now one of the most in-demand motors on the road.
The supercharged Wraith and the convertible Dawn are appealing to young, fashionable footballers - Manchester United pair Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku both have custom Wraiths.
Matt says his firm, and the bold look they gave to the regal cars, started the trend.
"Five years ago we were the only people doing Rolls-Royces, the two-tone, doing the wheels and de-chroming.
"Now it's a big thing. They now do a two-tone from the factory."
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So what are the next big trends in the custom world?
"Interiors," says Matt after a long think. "Some of the interiors being done now are amazing, in suede or crocodile.
"We've done some crazy interiors.
"A lot of people spend their money on the outside but when they get inside they want it to be like the outside."
Like Wilf Zaha and his one-off starlit roof.
- For more information or to contact Matt, visit the website . Also, follow and tune into the new here.
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