News

FPS is hoping for an Olympic win with its sponsorship of young hurdler Alex Pozzi. The automotive distributor first started helping Pozzi through an association with his local athletics club in Bath, also the location of FPS' main office. The company agreed to help fund Pozzi's traveling costs, provided him with a car. and employees at the FPS have been keeping up to date with his success.

Exhausts manufacturer Bosal will have to pay more than £500,000 plus costs to workers who have won court action against redundancy packages paid to them in 2007. The Lancashire Evening Post (LEP) reports that 55 former workers launched legal action against Bosal for breach of contract after they did not get their full redundancy pay when the Bamber Bridge plant was shut in 2007.

It's the fourth of July and that means only one thing, it's Independent's Day. No, we've not spelt anything wrong, we're re-naming July the fourth as Independents' Day here in the UK. We feel the UK independent automotive aftermarket needs to be celebrated and be proud of its achievements in the past year.

Last month saw the good looking and popular Ford Fiesta put under the microscope, giving us plenty of opportunity to discuss fault finding and diagnosing common issues. This month our friends in the market have turned their attention to the equally popular Vauxhall Corsa.

Just 58 percent of independent garages are using a website to promote their business, a study by the Independent Garage Association has found. The report, says the IGA. shows that while the aftermarket is slowly beginning to take advantage of online business the uptake is still slow.

A1 motor factors members have agreed to increase the scope of their trade marketing program. At a recent meeting of members of the group, it was agreed that independent factors need to fight harder to stay afloat in a turbulent market. As part of the new initiative, the A1 group will be providing its factor members with a range of new marketing material.

Rhino Products says it is pleased to have lent a hand to BBC programme, DIY SOS. Rhino stockist VANRAX was able to help out the production crew of the hit BBC show by supplying new aluminium racks for the show’s vans. The stockist had previously already supplied one rack to the show.

A record number of accident repair technicians graduated from Thatcham’s Apprentice Academy this month. The annual graduation from Thatcham’s has become something of a calendar event in the trade, not only for the apprentice taking their first steps into the business, but also for the industry benefiting from a fresh influx of new talent.

A rouge trader selling counterfeit and out-of-date Autodata CDs to garages in Slough has been arrested. The arrest was the end result of an operation involving the Police, Slough Borough Council trading standards and Autodata. The rouge trader was caught in the act of selling the counterfeit CDs.

The Good Garage scheme is introducing its new face and mascot, Miles Better, to UK motorists thanks to a new advertising campaign. The animated character will be delivering helpful tips and advice to motorists and garages via a TV advertising spot on the Sky network, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.