Activate Group (AGL) has announced the creation of a new body shop division - Activate Accident Repair - following a £3m investment and creating 200 jobs.
Auto Service Finance (ASF) won its second FinTech award this time at the Credit Strategy’s Credit Awards 2019 in the Alternative Lender of the Year category.
CitNOW has been ranked the UK’s eighth fastest-growing UK exporters in The Sunday Times WorldFirst SME Export Track 100.
Independent repairer Strasse Garage has had a promotion in 911 & Porsche World Magazine banned by the advertising watchdog for using an image which "objectified women".
Suzuki GB has named this year’s winners of its annual Aftersales Guild Awards, which took place at the De Vere Horwood Estate in Buckinghamshire.
Fix Auto franchisee to develop new 13,000sq ft site Fix Auto’s Leeds South franchisees have completed the business’s relocation to a new 13,000 square foot site in the city. Owners Stephen and Sam Smith have equipped the new facility to carry out heavy and structurally damaged vehicle repairs alongside the express repairs the previous Leeds repair centre serviced. Two paint booths have been installed alongside a vehicle track-movement system to ensure the repair capacity is increased to 160 vehicles a month. However, the pair have now revealed the move is just a stepping stone after announcing new ambitious plans to develop a bespoke repair centre in the heart of the city. Plans have been submitted to develop a purpose-built 14,000 square foot centre on a recently-purchased 43,000 square foot brownfield site, which is close to the city’s arterial road network. Sam Smith said: “We had high hopes for our Leeds repair centre when we opened three years ago, but we never envisaged just how things would take off. “The high demand for repairs has been the driver behind relocating into a larger building, which gives us greater capacity for now. “This latest move is hopefully just a stepping stone until our plans to build our own new repair centre are complete. “If all goes well, we could be moving into our purpose-built repair centre by the end of 2020.” Ian Pugh of Fix Auto UK said: “Fix Auto Leeds is one of our many success stories. Establishing a business, relocating it and then revealing plans to develop a new site and all within three years is some going even by our franchisees’ standards. “You have to congratulate Sam and Stephen, it’s a great opportunity and I am looking forward to see how this one progresses over the coming months.”
Franchised dealers need to recruit more technicians, target increased retail work and address poor workshop utilisation to buck the trend of “an institutionalised acceptance of low overhead absorption”.
Halfords reports that sales at its workshop chain, Autocentres, rose 2.2% to £161.4 million in the 12 months to Mar 29, reflecting growth in its provision of servicing, tyres and MOT.
Franchised dealers are failing to sell almost half of the urgent jobs identified during the service process, costing them more than £400m per year according to new data from autoVHC.
Robins & Day by PSA Retail has announced that it is extending its £1aftersales survey pledge across its sales department, to raise more money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
JCT600 is celebrating a record set of annual financial results for 2018 after the car retail group’s turnover rose 2% to £1.28 billion and profits held flat in what was described as a “challenging year”.
Kris Collinson has achieved master technician status with Peugeot UK, making him one of the youngest people in the UK to receive the accreditation.
The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) has launched the Electric Vehicle Approved (EVA) scheme to certify retailers’ excellence in the electric vehicle sector.
CCR Motor Company’s Mitsubishi Motor in the UK dealership in Bristol claimed the Japanese brand’s dealer of the year award at an event to celebrate success across its retail network.
Nearly half of workshop technicians believe that they will need electric and hybrid technology know-how more than traditional mechanical knowledge in as little as five years, according to CitNOW.
Vindis Motor Group has promoted Nathan Rook to the post of head of business and Paul Garratt into the role of group used car manager.
Thatcham Research has outlined how automotive repair and insurance companies should manage vehicle repairs involving Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).
Vertu Motors’ chairman Peter Jones described the AM100 franchised car retail group's 2018 financial performance as “a credible result” despite a 16.8% decline in profit before tax.
CitNow has reached a ‘landmark’ million customer videos in March, reflecting the automotive industry’s use of video technology.
Car retailers improved their profitability by 4.4% year-on-year to an average of £118,000 during March, according to the latest data published by ASE.
