Specifically, my job title will be digital product manager and I will be tasked with growing the site commercially and driving paid-for content forward. It’s a little daunting when I think about it, as online publishing is probably my weakest area; but by the same token it’s also hugely exciting as I will be learning a considerable amount.

I have had the most fantastic three years working in the aftermarket. It is a fabulous industry, full of some of the most driven people I have met – as well as some of the most creative. I guess you have to be creative in the face of VM competition if you’re to make money!

While heading CAT I have learned more about running a brand than I could have imagined. I hope that the title is in better shape now than it was when I took the helm at the end of 2007.

I know there is much work still to be done, but my successor – David Harris – is definitely the man to do it. He has aftermarket experience, is a proven publisher and I am sure will drive CAT on to greater things still.

Key in his remit should be:

• To improve the website, driving traffic to it and turning it into a viable commercial proposition
• To turn the CAT Awards into the must-attend social event of the year
• To ensure CAT remains the best, most independent aftermarket B2B brand
• To develop the Directory brand online and in print

I am certain he can do that.

He will have my help and support should he need it, as I will only be upstairs (on floor 5).

Anyway, before you all start crying onto your desks at the prospect of a Foster-less aftermarket (I think editor Emma is actually relishing the idea after sitting opposite me for three years) I thought I’d sign off with my ’most memorable’ memories of my time in this most incredible of industries…

Emma and German beer that was bigger than her. Or so it seemed.

 1 Automechanika 2008 

It was my first visit to an Automechanika and there I was, merrily taking photos of the Trico stand for Nigel Cole, when along came a couple of burly (and I mean burly) German geezers, covered in tats and with shaven heads. They wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Millwall football hooligan gang.

“Vhere eez your photo passz?” One of them hissed. Uh oh.

“Erm, I am press?” I tried to offer back. Not good enough. They grabbed me by the arms and ‘arrested’ me, before taking me to have my camera confiscated at security HQ.  Seeing as it was my own camera, I was not amused. Trouble was, neither were they.

After my camera had been taken off my person, I had to walk – accompanied by messrs Thug and Hooligan – all the way back to the press centre (a good 20 minutes trudging) where they verified I was from CAT and gave me permission to take photos.

Then it was 20 minutes trudging back to the security point to collect my camera again. Lesson learned – when you go to Automechanika, if you take a camera, get permission to use it!

Also on that trip, memories of talking to a guy called Fenton Rixon – who was trying to sell space in the aftermarket section of the Autosport Show 2009.

Fenton was full of doom and gloom about the impending financial crisis.

“The banks will all collapse! Take all your money out and stuff it under the mattress! Cash is king!” he was telling me. Two years on and wer’e still here. Hurrah for that, Fenton!

Also at this show was the Trico night, where much beer was consumed and editor Emma drank a beer in one go that was bigger than her. Most impressive!

Fenton Rixon: Doom! Gloom! Put your cash under your mattress!

2 Plastered in Paris

At Equip Auto last year in Paris, editor Emma and I ended up getting slightly merry on beers that cost a whacking 10 Euro a pint. Well actually we got plastered. We were in our hotel bar when I spied a piano! Not being one to hide a light under my bushel, I made a lunge for the piano stool and started playing. Badly. I had double vision, which makes playing piano slightly tricky, as it’s hard to control two hands, let alone when you think you have four.

The more I played, the louder the background music became in the bar and check-in area. Until eventually, two butch French security guards (with tats, and who wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Millwall hooligan gang) came over to physically tear me away from the instrument.

Maybe it was because I was playing a track by the Pet Shop Boys, after something by Elton John.

3 Visiting Sykes Pickavant

This is probably memorable for all the wrong reasons! Lobby (sales exec Karen Reilly) and I had put together what we thought was a fabulous proposal to get tool company Sykes Pickavant involved in some way with the CAT brand. We weren’t after much investment, just a little support perhaps, just so they could see that CAT might be a viable marketing tool for them to exploit.

As such we’d booked a slot to see Dave Mekie, the company’s marketing director, at their HQ in Walsall. But what a waste of time, money and effort it all turned out to be. A day in my life that was totally pointless.

After our presentation to Dave (and his PR assistant, who was lovely) demonstrating how CAT goes out to over 17,000 readers, outlining the demographics of our subscriber base (which included over 9,000 independent garages), Mekie summarily dismissed pretty much everything we’d said. It was obvious he didn’t like CAT, was never going to like CAT and possibly didn’t even believe we went out to garages.

So why bother wasting his time, and ours, seeing us?

And why, if CAT is not right for Sykes, do they keep sending us press releases? All questions I will never be able to answer! I shan’t miss days like this in my next role. Fortunately days like this were very rare on CAT.

You can’t win ‘em all!

Martin, Emma and me on a CAT day out. Lobby was behind the camera.

A day of much merriment and bonding followed. As usual though, I went one step too far. (That should be my epitah – ‘he went one step too far!)

While queueing for Stealth (one of the fastest accelerating roller coasters at 0-80mph in 2.5 seconds), Martin Lee – our sales manager – wasn’t moving as fast as the queue was. So I whacked him hard on the posterior to get him moving, same way you’d whack a cow on the arse if it wasn’t going into the milking shed properly.

Poor old Martin. He jumped out of his skin. Now, ever since I did that, whenever I move my arm near Martin he flinches!

5 Visit to Corteco HQ

Sometimes you meet clients you just click with. They get where you’re coming from, we understand what they need and the relationship works brilliantly both ways.

The guys at Corteco – Steve, Satbinder and Reiner – are all like that. What top blokes. They paid for Karen, Emma and I to visit their HQ in Germany, which we did do. A great time was had by all, even during a factory tour that actually proved quite interesting!

While being shown round Freudenburg HQ, I spied a football table. Reiner Martsfeld said he was pretty good, so I said we could have a Germany v England rematch, the first time England would have played Germany at football on German soil since we hammered them 5-1 (even Heskey scored that night).

Alas, Mr Martsfeld bottled it and the match never happened. Probably just as well for me, really. I’d have lost on penalties!

Reiner Martsfeld of Freudenberg. He bottled a game of table football with me!

Thank you

And that’s it from me. Thank you all for your support of CAT during my tenure. I hope we helped you grow your business along the way. I’m proud to leave CAT in a very strong position – we pride ourselves on delivering a top-notch product each month, something that won’t change no matter who is publisher.

My email remains the same – jim.foster@haymarket.com. I look forward to staying in touch with you all!

There is one subject I really want to talk about – and that is the shady issue of ‘buying’ editorial in trade magazines.

One very important point I would like to make at the outset is this:

None of the editorial in CAT is ever linked to advertising content.

None is compromised by being linked to advertising spend.

None is ever seen by advertisers before going to print.

Ever!

Our editorial content is, therefore, completely  independent, a fact that’s an integral part of our brand’s credentials.

In fact, if I even so much as suggest a subject for our editor to write about, or a company to include in editorial, she puts on what I call her ‘cross face’!

“I decide editorial content,” she rightly says. “Not the publisher. Not the sales team.”

Our editorial is not for sale

As such, unlike some trade mags out there, you cannot ‘buy’ editorial space in CAT by placing an advert.

If we say something about someone, write a critique of a company or praise a product, it’s because it’s genuine and absolutely not as the result of an advert that’s appeared elsewhere in the magazine.

Of course, other publications are free to run their businesses in whatever way they like.

But in my view, it should be made crystal clear to readers in titles where selling editorial occurs that this is the case.

Readers have a right to know that the supposed ‘editorial’ content they are looking at might only be there because of a commercial deal undertaken with the company that’s being written about.

And therefore it should, perhaps, be labelled as ‘advertorial’.

Why people read CAT

I’d like to think that people read CAT because they want to, because they enjoy it and get something from it. We’re regularly told we are market leaders in terms of editorial quality, which pleases us greatly because that’s what we strive for.

We want our subscribers to pick up CAT and actually read it when it comes through their letterbox.

And this in turn gives our advertisers better value for their hard-earned marketing spend. We want them to know that people will be reading CAT. That our subscribers want to read CAT.

We don’t just dump batches of 300 copies with a factor to deliver to some garages sometimes.

Over 99% of our readership is requested. Every one of our readers is on a database. We know who each of them is, even if we can’t share those details with you thanks to data protection laws!

How is editorial chosen?

When editor Emma chooses her cover stories, her news stories and her features, she does so on the basis that what she and her contributors are writing about is of real (and independent) relevance to the trade.

We never mortgage our editorial. Just because you advertise, doesn’t guarantee you an editorial slot. And if you don’t have any marketing spend, we’re not going to say “you won’t get any coverage”.

If you have something good to say, you will get editorial coverage. Regardless.

The result is simple. None of our editorial is commercially biased. Readers know it’s for real. And long may it stay that way!

[Amen - Ed]

Foz & Butch in action... Foz: 'I once caught a carp that was THIS big!'

And so another CAT Awards event has ended.

Biased though I am, I have to say that it was a brilliant CAT Awards – the first time our Awards had been held as an event in its own right.

This marked a huge step up in significance from handing out a few prizes on the back of our stand at the Aftermarket Show, as had happened in previous years.

We now have an extension to the CAT brand platform that we can be justly proud of: and one that in my opinion will keep on growing.

Awards: The Benefits

There were many plusses to come from the luncheon ceremony. They included the following facts:

• Over 100 aftermarket personnel attended – we had great support from the trade
• They included decision makers from some of the industry’s biggest suppliers, buying groups and factors
• Eight Awards were presented, including six that were decided in their entirety by votes from CAT readers
• It marked the first time we included the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ and ‘Green Innovation’ categories
• We raised a total of £842 for BEN thanks to some most generous donations

The downside was that CAT had to feed everyone!

In my naivety, I had budgeted for about a 50-60% take-up on all the invitations I had sent out.

I sent out 120, expecting 60 or so people to say yes. As it happened, 100 people said yes! Which kind of blew my budget out of the water a little.

And created a few nervous moments in the days leading up to the Awards, as the maxmimum number the venue could cater for in our chosen room was 100.

But thanks to some late sponsorship support from Klarius, I managed to get together the extra cash I needed to pay for the whole thing, and generally speaking it all went off without a hitch.

Foz & Butch: The New Ant & Dec

Even the double act that was me and editor Emma Butcher (we did a joint compering job) went well – we seemed to bounce off each other pretty effectively.

So Ant and Dec had best watch out. Foz & Butch are the new double act in town. With Pinewood Studios next door, I wouldn’t be surprised if some TV producers come calling soon.

Seriously, what’s great about the CAT Awards is that they are so organic. What I mean by that is that they are the Aftermarket’s Awards – or your Awards.

CAT is the Aftermarket’s no.1, most established trade title. We’ve been going for over 30 years. Therefore when its 17,000 readers nominate their finalists and vote, people sit up and pay attention.

And this year our readers selected some awesome winners. You’ve probably all read about them by now anyway, but who can argue with Motaquip for Supplier of the Year? Or GMF as our top factor? Or the excellent ABP Motorsport as our top garage?

Or indeed the hard-working Jim Mazza, who as part of the Right to Repair Campaign has done so much for our industry.

UK Aftermarket: Pride

I think what the Awards also show is how innovative, strong, creative and friendly our industry is.

That there are some brilliant independent garages, businesses, suppliers and distributors out there that collectively are a credit to the IAM.

I for one am proud to be a part of it.

And I am proud to be a servant of it through CAT: the aftermarket’s longest-standing trade magazine, now with the aftermarket’s most prestigious Awards.

Make sure you nominate and vote for the 2011 Awards!

 Finally, a big thank you to the following people without whom none of the above would have been possible: 

• Sarah Hossack – Haymarket Events
• The CAT team
• John Stanton for a walk into Aftermarket history in his speech (which involved lots of booze stories!)
• All our sponsors – Haynes, Nulon, Klarius, ECP, Corteco, Denso, Motaquip and Castrol
• The Lensbury for its excellent service
• Everyone who contributed towards the goody bags – Nulon, UK Batteries, Saxon etc
• The Nulon girls – including Sun page 3 girl Katie Leigh - in their tight CAT suits!
• To the Aftermarket for its support. With your help, we can make these Awards something really special

We even had some page 3 girls... Courtesy of Start Ya Bastard!

If ever a picture summed up a publisher's role...

It’s a good question, perhaps because there isn’t an easy one-line answer I can give that sums it all up. There are too many facets to the job.

I guess the simple response is to say this: that my main duty is to ensure CAT is well run and makes money.

Publishing CAT magazine means I have responsibilities across just about every area of the business, including:

• Planning the brand’s long-term business strategy
• Building relationships with key clients
• Writing budgets and monitoring the monthly accounts
• Putting together bespoke campaigns for bigger clients – Denso and ECP, for example
• Organising our Awards
• Selling bespoke sponsorships for the Awards
• Managing the business side of the website

From time to time, editor Emma even lets me do the occasional bit of editorial, both in the mag and online: I actually wrote half of our 30th anniversary special supplement back in June, which was fantastic as it taught me so much about the history of our industry.

Often, there can be so many little projects on the go at once, that I get into the office and don’t really know which one I should be concentrating on.

When I first arrived at Haymarket, one of my colleagues on What Car? magazine said that publishing was very much like trying to keep a dozen spinning plates in the air at the same time, and not allowing them to fall down and smash on the floor.

It was a decent analogy. That’s exactly what publishing a magazine can be like at times, even one as relatively small as CAT.

But I love it. So there!

Rob gets to work - to replace a speed sensor on my offside rear tyre

I had a rather pleasurable experience yesterday.

Before you start thinking too deeply as to what this means, I’d better explain.

Yesterday (Tuesday November 3rd) I had my car MOT’d and serviced by a rather good independent garage – TJ Hall & Son, who are based on the outskirts of Oxford.

Members of both Motor Codes and the Good Garage Scheme, I believe they represent how an independent garage should be run.

Hence my MOT and service was a pleasurable affair, rather than the ‘not-sure-if-I-might-have-been-conned’ type experience most of us have had in the past.

INDEPENDENT GARAGES: THE BEST CHOICE

Before I extol their virtues, I should say that I have always been a keen exponent of the independent garage.

This was true long before I took the reins at the publishing helm of CAT.

My last job was based on an industrial estate in Daventry.

Just around the corner was a garage called A&S Refinishing, who were superb. But why? Well…

1. The technicians there would, for no extra cost, give me basic car maintenance help
2. If I wanted advice, they’d give it happily
3. They offered excellent service and knowledge for much less than you’d pay at a dealer

In short, A&S – like TJ Hall & Son - offered everything that is good about the indy garage trade.

But since moving jobs almost three years ago, I’ve struggled to find somewhere as good near my new home.

In fact, two of the local garages to me, were pretty poor in terms of customer service, as I have written about in this blog before.

ROBERT HALL – TECHNICIAN OF THE YEAR

So when I met Rob Hall in January 2009 at the CAT Awards, I had a chat with him.

He’d just been voted our Technician of the Year and said: “Bring your car along to us then next time it needs something doing.”

So I did yesterday; for my Beemer’s MOT and a small pre-winter check-up.

And I enjoyed the experience. For the first time since I used A&S, I had found a garage that was perfect for me. This was because…

1. …Rob explained clearly everything he was doing, both during the MOT test and afterwards when he was doing the work required for it to pass
2. The pricing policy was clear and very fair
3. Customer service was obviously a priority – I was well looked after, everyone was friendly

Sceptics among you may well say that this is because I work for CAT.

Well, I don’t think that’s the case. I was charged the same amount for the same work that anyone would get charged. I got treated the same as other clients.

Other cars were being repaired too.

These were cars that had been picked up that morning at their owners’ work places, driven to the garage, and at the end of the day would be dropped back again when the work was finished.

All FOC as part of the service.

Now that’s not bad. The customer clearly comes first.

Like on oil.

“There wouldn’t be any point putting a top-end oil into one of the battered Peugeots the youngsters round here drive,” said Rob.

So when it came to paying the bill at the end of my visit, it was actually a pleasure to do so.

I knew what I was paying for and I knew I had got value for money.

Dealerships had better watch out: if TJ Hall and A&S are anything to go by, the independents are getting their act together!

CAT AWARDS: GARAGE OF THE YEAR 2010

Finally, I had better mention that all the garages nominated in this year’s Garage of the Year category are first class.

Dakar, who won it last year, are simply excellent – and I would recommend them, along with ABP Motorsport, Automotive Diagnostic Solutions, Complete Car Maintenance and JAZ Porshe, very highly too.

So get voting… should you have a favourite, of course!

Rob's sister Sarah: she's the brains behind the admin at TJ Hall. She also looks after customers

Any show you go to is going to have an amusing side to it. And this year’s Equip Auto was no different…

1. Lobby nearly arrested in mag ’smuggle’ scandal

It all started on the Tuesday morning when myself and Karen Reilly (aka Lobby, CAT’s senior sales exec) were due to catch the 0832 Eurostar from London St Pancras.

While I got there with plenty of time to spare, poor old Lobby was late.

I was sat down in my coach and was wating for some coffee to come round when I had a panicked call:

• It was her
• She might miss the train
• Security had stopped her
• Her bags had been X-rayed

“Security,” I asked?  “Why?”

“Ohhh Jim! They told me I couldn’t take so many mags w’ me,” she said in a shocked, pure Sutton (London) accent.

“I tell ya mate, I ‘ad to tell ‘em I was late for the train, but they wanted to know more abaaht CAT… They thought I was smugglin’ me own mag to France!”

Knowing Lobby, after she’d sorted it she probably tried to sell the customs bloke an ad before eventually getting on the train.

She made it with seconds to spare, the 200 mags still in her suitcase.

Equip Auto 2009 was under way.

2. Liquid Tuna

When we arrived, I met up with editor Emma Butcher to get some lunch.

On discovering that a cheeseburger and fries were a somewhat expensive £30 or so at the stupidly named Hippopotamus restaurant (making the NEC look cheap) we decided to go to a cheap bar.

There I ordered a ‘baguette du club avec un botteille d’Orangina’, and much to my annoyance the bill for that came to a tenner.

Even worse was the fact that the ‘baguette du club’ seemed to have liquid tuna in it. This brown mess dripped out of the bread onto the table in front of me.

I had to be careful not to get it on my suit – it was as if someone had taken a live yellowfin tuna, stuck the friggin thing through a food blender and then put the resulting mess in some bread.

And charged 10 Euro for it.

But on the plus side, it tasted better than anything you can pick up at the Sandown Mechanex Show.

3. Toilet Shenanegans

On the Tuesday evening, editor Emma Butcher and I attended Equip Auto’s prestigious Grand Prix Awards.

I will let her talk about them, though I must mention how impressed I was with the Valeo BeamAtic device that won the Original Equipment category.

When the Awards were completed, it was time for a reception. Canapes and champers were consumed en masse.

Miss Butcher was most excited when she saw the free champagne.

You could see her thinking to herself, “gimme gimme gimme gimmee” as she waited patiently in a queue to get some.

In about an hour we consumed five glasses each before heading to the coach for the trip back to the hotel.

On the way back to the coach, I took the opportunity to have a leak.

The blokes toilet had been locked. The womens’ toilet was open. I thought about it for a second, then thought “no” – imagine the contraversy if I had been caught!

“CAT Publisher Caught in Ladies’ Toilet Shocker!” would have been the headline in Aftermarket magazine. My aftermarket career would have been over.

So I headed for the disabled bog. That too was locked, though there was obviously someone inside.

I waited, no-one came out. I was desperate. I was going to p**** myself. So I decided – the ladies it is.

But oh no! As I approached, a big, fat, sweaty bloke ambled out, trousers still undone, fumbling with his zip, semi exposing himself.

I did an about turn and the saw the diasabled toilet door open. Excellent, I thought… until a man emerged, closely followed by a suspiciously dishevelled female.

Suddenly I didn’t need a pee any more.

4. Lift Escapade

We were staying, courtesy of Equip Auto, in a hotel in the middle of town. Rather nice it was too – big lobby, piano, bar, room with a view.

And friggin’ complicated lifts.

In my semi-inebriated state, I got into a lift that didn’t go to my floor. It went straight up to floor 33.

I got into another lift, which went up, down, to half a dozen different floors. But not mine. Never mine! Why? It took me 10 minutes to realise it would only go to floor 15 if I inserted my key card into the slot on the buttons panel. D’oh!

5. Banned from the piano

After our wallets had been suitably bashed by the 10 Euro per pint bar prices, I spied a piano in the lobby. A nice piano. A big, GRAND piano!

So, at 2am and rather drunkenly, and after much persuasion from an also similarly inebriated Miss Butcher, I climbed onto the piano stool and commenced playing.

Rather badly.

Security came over. They said something in French – it wasn’t hard to work out that the rough translation was, ’stop now or else’.

I didn’t stop. In fact I launched into a Chopin prelude in G minor, a big, deafening piece that went down like a lead balloon.

Security didn’t like it, but I carried on regardless.

“You can’t be arrested for playing the piano!” Emma said (I think) to one security man before flashing her eye lashes at him in the way women do if they want a man to relent.

Security man faded away. We had won!

From Chopin to Debussy, to the Beatles and Sting and Bach, out came some numbers I hadn’t played for years.

But alas, we hadn’t won. The background music, playing over the hotel foyer’s sound system, went into overdrive… and drowned me out.

I had to stop. The combination of me on piano and some French easy listening rubbish was a cacophony.

But it had been a wonderful night, a funny night, and a night we all enjoyed immensely.

What is it about trade shows – and their amusing side? There’s always some fun to be had!

I’ve just got back from the Equip Auto show in Paris and I am pleased to report that it seemed rather buoyant.

Having visited various stands, there were players out there who definitely benefited from the outlay of cash required to exhibit.

They went with a sound plan, clear objectives and did some very good business as a result.

Here are top five companies I saw (in no particular order):

1 Corteco 

Out of everyone exhibiting, I spent the most time on the Corteco stand.

Sceptics among you will think was due to their free coffee, biscuits, champagne and beer. Or the hostess serving them.

Okay I admit it, the former was an attraction, but it was also fascinating talking to Steve Jarnett and his German boss Reiner Martsfeld about their whole operation.

You can tell when a company is going places from the passion exuded by its employees, and that was definitely the case here.

Both men oozed passion. As long as they – and their team - stay in place, they are a company to watch out for in the next year or two.

And b*gger me wasn’t their stand busy with deals being done.

2 Suplex

Another company that will be making inroads into the UK aftermarket in 2010 is Suplex.

Owned by Andrew Graham (who has worked in some guise or other for Suplex since the mid-1990s) their slick and detailed sales pitches were backed up by a top-dollar product.

I never thought that the whole business of suspension springs was that important (or indeed interesting), but Andrew deonstrated that I was wrong on both counts.

Their tapered springs looked market leaders.

I have no doubt that garages up and down the country will be fitting them to customers’ cars in greater numbers than ever next year.

As with Corteco, the Suplex stand was crazily busy. Always a good sign.

3 Autologic Diagnostics

I am not including these guys because they sponsored our Show Guide.

Instead, it’s because they had a great diagnostic product on show, aimed at independent garages.

I’ve never seen a diagnostic machine in action before, but they had one they were showing off.

It even had a name – DES. Not only did DES look good but he was easy to use, too.

If something went wrong with my Beemer, even I would stand a fighting chance of diagnosing the problem with DES on my side!

I’d love to say I had a long meeting with Karen Poffley, but it had to be a fleeting ‘hello’ as she was inundated with people wanting to do business.

I was delighted that that was the case. It’s just what we like to see.

4 BM Catalysts

Meeting Helen Lumley of BMC was good too. We’d spoken a lot on the phone before, but not actually met.

She wasn’t as I’d expected – she was a lot younger!

Helen explained BMC’s strategy for the show to me and editor Emma, while also running us through the products.

Again, there were top-notch products on show from a company that is passionate about the aftermarket.

5 Denso

While I didn’t meet up with anyone on the Denso stand (it seemed to be Denso Europe rather than Denso UK) their new, expanded product ranges were on show and creating a lot of interest.

This is another company shaking the aftermarket up with significant investment and marketing budgets: nexst year will be a big one for them.

So those would be my top five ’star companies’ of the show.

If you were exhibitting or went and you disagree, let me know. I only had a day-and-a-a-half there so couldn’t get to see everyone.

But all those I did speak to or see seemed to be reporting a successful show.

The mood was buoyant. And that can only bode well for the Aftermarket as 2009 draws to a close.

I hear that my ability to link remanufacturing to Girls Aloud in my last blog created some hilarity in the trade – good! I’m just glad people are reading some of the stuff I’m writing.

Okay, I’m afraid this blog is a little more serious and business-orientated that the last one.

Well I guess it had to be really, I am CAT’s publisher after all!

What I want to do is promote our January Awards Ceremony and invite you to attend. Because next year, for the very first time, our Awards will be an event in its own right. So I want to make sure they go down really well.

We’ll be holding them in Teddington, in the Lensbury Hotel and Conference Centre next to the CAT offices in Teddington.

The big day is Friday January 22nd. So get that date in your diaries. Here are some Awards facts:

• They will be presented during a luncheon
• Those attending will need to turn up at midday – proceedings should be finished by 3pm
• All nominated finalists will be invited to attend FOC
• Seven Awards in all will be presented, see our Awards page
• First 40 invitees to confirm attendance will also get lunch on us

So, if you want to come, send me an email – jim.foster@haymarket.com and register your interest.

The CAT Awards are unique in that it is our readers who decide the nominees and then vote for the winners, so they are worth supporting as they are genuinely the industry’s awards.

Enough from me. I’m now going to go back to my work thinking of my lovely trip to Ireland last week, where I went fishing for salmon and sea trout.

While I didn’t catch any salmon, I did manage a good few sea trout in a place called Connemara - the scenary was magnificent.

It was just a shame about the economy over there. And we think we have it bad! The Irish have it 10 times worse, as abandoned building sites, closed businesses and ghost-streets in some towns testified.

At least the Guinness remained as good as ever, though!

Remanufacturing is interesting. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I would write, say, utter, whisper or even think.

But it is – genuinely! – interesting.

I enjoy lunching with CAT’s clients. This is especially the case when you get on with them and have a good time, talking about stuff in addition to pure business. Editor Emma Butcher and I both felt that we ‘clicked’ with Michael, and his marketing manager, Maureen Cole.

Passion for remanufacture

It was obvious from the outset that both are passionate about their area of the industry. So much so that, in Michael’s case, he commutes every week from his home in Malmo, Sweden, to Remy HQ in Lichfield.

Crazy bugger.

Or maybe not… Closer questioning revealed that it only takes him an hour longer to get to work door-to-door on a Monday morning from Malmo than it takes Emma Butcher to get to the CAT office in Teddington from her home in Shooters Hill.

Which is more crazy?

Both Michael and Maureen also know their stuff inside out. By the end of lunch, I knew all about ‘core’, the remanufacture process, about Remy’s factories in Hungary and Tunisia, and how OE quality can be achieved through remanufacture.

I also learned that doing aftermarket  business in Russia is problematic for Remy.

This is because the old Ruskies won’t send their used alternators back  (incidentally, don’t bother typing the words ‘Russia’ and ‘remanufacture’ into Google. Instead of alternators and starter motors, you get pages about warhead remanufacture, nuclear terrorism and various other horrors)!

Girls Aloud: and hybrid motors

On a lighter note, I discovered too how Maureen’s husband has a penchant for Girls Aloud following a trip to Wembley to see them live, supporting Coldplay. Me too!

As lunch progressed, Michael revealed that Remy International Inc is also leading the way when it comes to manufacture and supply of OE and OE-quality parts for hybrid cars, specifically hybrid electric motors.

In the US, Remy has even been awarded a government grant to ‘establish a standardized platform of hybrid electric motors and controls’.

While we’re not seeing too many hybrids enter the UK aftermarket as yet, you can be guaranteed that they will be getting onto garage forecourts in the next few years in more and more numbers.

Innovation

But the beauty of the aftermarket is how it adapts to changes like this. We have seen it over years gone by, we’ll see it again.

We are working in one of the most durable and innovative industries there is. People need to think ahead to survive.

Remy is a company doing just that: as hybridisation and green motoring become more prominent, so will the name Remy.

I’m looking forward to working with Remy in the near future. It’s a company going places. And remanufacturing, hey? Who would have thought I would have enjoyed talking about it so much!

Girls Aloud. Can I remanufacture them please?

While most aftermarket bosses enjoy playing golf, I’d rather go fishing.

Altough I enjoy the odd cheeky nine holes with our digital expert Roger Barr, of Lion Digital (he behind this website) fishing is the sport for me.

I’ve been doing it ever since I was a kid. And for 11 years before joining the CAT team, I was a fishing journalist: working my way up to the position of editor-in-chief at David Hall Publishing: a company that specialises in making fishing magazines.

There are very few species of fish in the UK I haven’t caught. Big carp, trout and salmon; cod, bass, plaice and flouders - I’ve had ‘em all, including (and I don’t wish to boast too much…)

• Carp to 41lb
• Salmon to 12lb
• Brown trout to 9lb (pictured above)
• Rainbow trout to 13lb
• Sea trout to 5lb
• Tench to 9lb

So it’s always nice to find out about colleagues in the aftermarket who enjoy wetting a line.

Brian Childs: Natural Fisho

Last year I had the pleasure of taking Brian Childs, of NGK, trout fishing for a day at the Chalk Springs fishery in Sussex.

It soon became obvious that Brian was a natural. Having never been fly fishing before, by the end of the day he was casting a good line and was catching trout freely.

That’s not a mean feat.

Then there’s Tom Stewart, the PR agent for Turtle Wax, who also enjoys hunting trout from time to time.

A1 MotorStores Fishing Trip

And finally, a few weeks back, I discovered that A1 Motorstores’ main man, Derrick Lawton, is a mad-keen fisho as well.

I’d gone up to see Derrick to discuss a supplement we’re going to be producing with A1Ms.

Somehow the conversation got onto fishing: and so it is that Derrick and I are heading south into the Hampshire countryside later this month to sample the delights of Dever Springs, home of monster trout.

I shall be sure to post up any photos of fish caught!

In the meantime, if there are any other budding fishermen out there in the industry that fancy a day’s fishing – or being taught fly fishing – get in touch with me by sending an email to jim.foster@haymarket.com. I’d love to hear from you.