News

Public sector borrowing has fallen by £300 million in the financial year to April 2013, figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today. The small reduction means public borrowing stood at £120.6 billion to April 2013 compared with £120.9 billion for the previous financial year.

[caption id="attachment_10447" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Taco Homan"][/caption]

Gates also has a new man in charge of the UK but unlike Hutchinson he’s not transferring from another company.

Taco Homan has worked at Gates since 1998, starting with the company as European Pricing Administrator.

Comline has taken on a new Marketing and Communications Manager to help with its plan to reach a turnover target of £50 million over the next three years. Simon Hutchinson has twenty years of service under his belt from ADL/Blue Print, so this is only the 39-year-old’s second aftermarket job.

It would be easy to take different business decisions with the benefit of hindsight, but that’s a mystical power that none of us have.

Autodata says it has bought another bogus vendor of its products to justice.

The company has applauded the conviction of a Mario Langton by Staffordshire Magistrates Court for infringing the Trademarks Act 1994.

Autodata says Langton would post as a legitimate tools salesman and approach workshops to sell out of date Autodata products.

A number of garages reported Langton to Autodata, which then worked alongside the Police and Trading Standards to get a conviction.

Autodata says it receives regular reports from its customers and the public, reporting counterfeit products.

The Alliance Group, which operates under the Groupauto UK name in this country, has acquired a majority stake in Precisium Group.

The Precisium Group is the the largest automotive parts trading group in France, and the acquisition gives the Alliance Group a substantial boost in the country. The acquisition increases the consolidated turnover of the Alliance Group as a whole to around €1.2 billion. Combined members of the group now have a sell-out value of €2.3 billion from 1300 points of sale.

Motorists taking their cars to an independent garage could find themselves spending up to £40 an hour less than a franchised dealer, research by the IGA has revealed.

The IGA polled over 2000 of its members on their labour rates and charges, concluding that independent garages are continuing to offer motorists excellent value for money.

The research also helps to bolster the quality message being driven to consumers by the IGA’s Trust My Garage scheme.

The lowest labour rate found in the poll was just £32 being charged in Northern Ireland, with the highest being £48 in the South and South East. By contrast average labour rates for franchises stand at £95.94 according to Warranty Direct.

Groupauto is hoping to stem the tide of complaints about independent garages with the launch of its public-facing Approved Garages scheme.

The Citizen’s Advice Bureau Customer Line has recorded over 11,400 complaints about repairs carried out at independent garages over the past year. Groupauto says it has never been more important for the trade to distinguish between those garages causing the complaints and the workshops which consumers can rely on.

The public-facing portion of the Approved Garages scheme gets underway this month, backed by the website www.approvedgarages.co.uk.

Businesses are in favour of re-negotiation Britain’s status in the EU, a new survey into British businesses has revealed. Almost 4500 businesses responded to the British Chamber of Commerce’s new “EU Business Barometer” survey, the first of its kind since the Prime Minister’s policy speech on Europe.

The IGA is working to transform Trust My Garage into a household name and a brand for all UK motorists.

The group has appointed an external PR agency, Bridge PR & Media Services, to increase awareness of the Trust My Garage name among consumers in a campaign which will use both traditional and digital PR.

IGA Director Stuart James said: “The IGA chose Bridge to represent the Trust My Garage scheme due to their proven track record in our industry, thanks to the work they had previously done with another independent garage scheme.