Retailer Kevin Stockton on why his livelihood is under threat from the opening of a mainstream superstore down the road
Have you ever parked on a roundabout? Neither had I until I went to visit RH Autoparts in Birmingham. Here cars are allowed to park in allocated bays on the outside of the roundabout, easing congestion and allowing the 70 or so shops in the local area to benefit from passing trade.
It’s all in a day’s work for Holts’ Research and Development Manager Bruce Ellis who takes CAT around the firm’s laboratory in Manchester. Just around the corner from where Kellogg’s makes cornflakes in Manchester, men in white coats are defrosting locusts and grinding them up.
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For motorists the journey that parts fitted to their cars will have taken to get to them is pretty unfathomable. For the technicians, factors and parts manufacturers that make up the supply chain, however, it’s everything.
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Marina Motors started life as a love story. The former owner of the garage ran a petrol forecourt where he fell head over spanner in love with a young pump attendant called Marina. He named the garage after her and it has stuck to this day.
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.
While the business of rotating electrics is seasonal, it would be very wrong to think that a rotating company like Autoelectro is idle in the summer. Even so, the Bradford-based firm has put the extra time it has had in the warmer months to very good use.
Compared with CAT’s last visit around 18 months ago, the 35,000 square feet of workshop, warehouse and despatch area have been transformed.
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Murray Silverman has a long history with the retail landscape and CAT – he’s featured on the cover of the magazine before with his business partner Les Millman as Ace Marketing.
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The recent rapid growth of JRP Distribution in Lancing is down to a lot of legwork and having key people on the ground. Not just in Sussex, or the rest of the UK, but in China.
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CAT Magazine has received an award from the motor industry charity BEN in recognition for its over the last year. CAT Editor Peter Lawton, Publisher David Harris, Sales Executive Don Rupal and Reporter Darren Moss were presented with the award by Amanda Clements and Kirsten Galvin of BEN.