YORKSHIRE BUSINESS IS THE UK’S BEST

A West Yorkshire retailer is celebrating after winning a national annual award.

Volkswagen Van Centre (West Yorkshire) is now the number one Volkswagen van centre in the UK after being crowned the 2011 ‘Most Valued Van Centre’ at a recent awards ceremony.

The Cleckheaton-based van centre faced competition from 70 other van sites from across the UK, and built upon its success from 2010 where it was presented with the silver award for the ‘Most Valued Van Centre’.

Andrew Caygill, director at the Cleckheaton-based business, was delighted to have reached the top.

He said: “To have achieved this status makes me very proud and honoured to be working with such a dedicated group. This is a great achievement for the whole of the van centre team, as everybody has pulled together to bring in this fantastic performance.

“We believe providing excellent service is central to our business success and are absolutely delighted that this has been acknowledged by winning this award.”

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles closely monitors all aspects of its van centres operations from customer satisfaction and aftersales through to business performance.

SUSSEX CHILDREN VISIT REAL LIFE BOB THE BUILDERS

Pupils from the Holy Trinity Primary School in Lower Beeding, recently gained an insight into the workings of an active new build housing development, thanks to the team at Charles Church’s luxury Trinity Fields development.

The 22 youngsters, all aged between seven and nine were given a site safety tour of the development by Trinity Fields contracts manager Daren Eagle.

They also had the chance to get up close and personal with a whole range of tools and building materials used by workers at the Charles Church site every day.

Tracey Bishop, head teacher at Holy Trinity Primary School, said: “The children love spending time in ‘real’ environments as it helps to support their learning by adding that extra dimension.

“We knew they’d be really excited to visit Charles Church’s nearby Trinity Fields development and were very pleased to been invited.

“The children all had a fantastic time and left the development knowing more about the whole house building process and why it is so important to not enter a building site unsupervised.”

To comply with health and safety guidelines the children, teacher and teaching assistants were all equipped with safety helmets and fluorescent jackets.

Charles Church’s site manager at Trinity Fields, said: “As the region’s premium homebuilder we take the health and welfare of the communities within which we build extremely seriously.

“This is why we are so keen to offer site safety visits to children, giving them an insight into how we build our properties as well as highlighting the importance of not playing on a building site.”

Sales and marketing director for Charles Church South East, Julia Price, added: “Education outside of the classroom can be invaluable and encourages students to see the building developments in action.

“It also present an industry to which some of the children could work in and forge a successful career.

“Showing students around new developments is a great way for them to experience all of the different processes involved with house building, and gives the children an opportunity to ask us questions about how houses are constructed.”

CHILDREN THANK LIVERPOOL COMPANY FOR SAFETY DONATION

A Merseyside primary school has thanked one of the city’s businesses for donating clothing to help keep its children safe during the dark mornings and evenings.

Hale C of E Primary School has received 50 fluorescent jackets to ensure the children are clearly visible when out walking to the local park and church for events.

The donation was made by Liverpool Volkswagen Van Centre and means the school no longer has to rely on borrowing high visibility jackets in future.

Marianne Mowatt, headteacher at Hale C of E Primary School, welcomed the delivery of the jackets.

She said: “Donations to the school are always welcome, but this one is important to keep the children together in a safe way while outside of the school’s premises.

“The children are very excited about the jackets and I can’t thank Liverpool Volkswagen Van Centre enough for them.

“We often take the children on walks around the village, including to the church and park, so having them clearly visibly, especially at this time of year, is vital.”

Liverpool Volkswagen Van Centre has been based in Speke for just over one year and the centre’s head of business, Dave Cowan, is always looking at ways of forging links with the local community.

He said: “The van centre is delighted to be able to provide the school’s children with the jackets as it reinforces one of the key criteria for Volkswagen, namely safety.

“As a relatively new business to the area it’s vital to integrate it with the local community and we’ll continue to find ways of doing so.

“It’s great to see young children making use of the jackets and we hope they are encouraged to wear safe clothing after leaving school.”

Top duo's Icelandic adventure

A West Midlands business has rewarded two of its employees with a luxury trip to Iceland after they delivered exceptional customer service results.
The duo from Trust Group UK, which has three Volkswagen sites in Redditch, Wolverhampton and Stourbridge, were rewarded with an Icelandic adventure after finishing within the top 50 performing Volkswagen sales managers.

Bill Alexander, who is based at Stourbridge Volkswagen was joined in Iceland by Wolverhampton Volkswagen’s general sales manager, Andrew Beach.

The pair has over three decades of managerial experience in the automotive industry. Bill (50) has 18 years motor experience and spent the last six with Trust Group UK. Whilst Andrew (36), who lives in Wolverhampton, has been in the industry since valeting cars aged 17.

Bill and Andrew made the top 50 performing sales managers from the national Volkswagen network during quarter three of 2011. They celebrated their success with the other sales managers, enjoying a stay in an exclusive hotel in the heart of Reykjavik.

Commenting on the trip Bill said: “I’m very grateful to Volkswagen for giving me the opportunity to visit this impressive country.

“The luxury three day break was a fantastic reward and we were lucky enough to experience the spectacular Northern Lights during our stay.

“We took part in some exhilarating adventure activities including snowmobiling, quad biking and driving customised super Jeeps across a glacier. We also had time to relax with a visit to Iceland’s most famous attractions, the blue lagoon geothermal spa.”

Trust Group UK’s managing director, Andrew Hockedy, said: “Bill and Andrew worked very hard to gain this recognition and it was fantastic to be able to reward them for their efforts.

“We are very lucky to have professionals of their calibre within our team.”

DOUBLE CELEBRATION WESTHOUGHTON MAN

In the year of the Olympics in London, a man from Westhoughton is already celebrating after achieving two landmarks in his career in the same month.

Jim Hobson marked 35 years in the automotive industry just a few days after being named the 2011 UK manager of the year for global automotive firm, Inchcape.

The head of business at Manchester Volkswagen Van Centre in Trafford Park, beat off competition from over 175 managers, from across Inchcape UK’s retailer car and van retailer network.

The 55-year-old started in 1977 as a sales executive, before progressing his career with roles including, sales manager and general manager.

Jim said: “The start of 2012 has been incredible and I’m thrilled to have won such a prestigious award, but for it to coincide with 35 years in the automotive industry is very special.

“The Inchcape award is humbling because without the support and hard work of all my colleagues at Manchester Volkswagen Van Centre, it wouldn’t have been possible.

“The industry has undergone many changes since I started and it’s been a privilege to have been part of the positive changes over the decades.”

Jim is now looking forward to adding to the awards and celebrations by driving the van centre to reach new goals in this special year.

He added: “I may have been given this Inchcape award but the job I do needs a team to carry it out.

“Everyone who works at Manchester Volkswagen Van Centre plays a key role in delivering a service that customers deserve from such a prestigious brand.

“I know the team will continue to provide Greater Manchester with one of the UK’s best automotive retailers and with it potentially winning more awards for the van centre.”

DOUBLE BUSINESS BOOST FOR CREWE RETAILER

A Crewe retailer has boosted its business by appointing two of the region’s most experienced managers.

Crewe Volkswagen has boosted its sales team, welcoming Darren Lancashire as sales manager and Simon Clarke as after sales manager.

The duo brings with them over 25 years’ experience in in the north west motor industry.
Simon, from Nantwich, started his career as an apprentice technician before climbing the career ladder with roles including workshop controller and assistant sales manager.

Speaking of his appointment, 30-year-old Simon, said: “I am looking forward to taking the Crewe Volkswagen team to new successes and providing customers with a service they expect from a prestigious brand.”

Having worked at a range of Volkswagen sites across the country, the last seven years in managerial roles, Darren is confident that the Volkswagen customer approach matches his own.

The 40-year-old from Willaston, said: “I am delighted to have joined the Crewe Volkswagen team and have instantly been made to feel welcome.

“I have always enjoyed working with the Volkswagen brand, the reliability, quality and unbelievable value is second to none. I just wouldn’t be happy working with a product I did not feel passionate about.

“This is a very exciting challenge and one that I’m looking forward to. My first task will be getting to know the staff and customers.”

Crewe Volkswagen’s brand manager, Ben Gilbert, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Darren and Simon to the team. They will both be great assets to Crewe Volkswagen.”

HiQ support Government decision to maintain MOT testing frequency

Leading national garage chain, HiQ, is championing the Government’s decision to maintain the frequency of MOT testing after warning it would have ‘hit the pockets of motorists harder than ever.’

The decision to make a U-turn on the proposal to change testing from 3-1-1 to 4-2-2 came from Transport Secretary Justine Greening, who stated that the Government would instead work with the industry to focus on reliability and standards of garages.

For HiQ, this is welcome news as the brand continues to position itself as a category leader in self-regulation and transparency.

HiQ’s fast fit manager, Stuart Carr, said: “The decision to maintain MOT testing frequency is a positive one not only for us as a garage franchise, but for motorists in general.

“If the decision had gone ahead, we raised huge concerns on the grounds of safety and the negative cost implications it would have had on motorists driving around with defects for longer.”

The garage industry will now be under the spotlight to deliver a satisfactory service to motorists and each will have to publish MOT performance data to help improve standards.

“We are committed to raising standards across the network and have already invested in customer feedback initiatives such as customer surveys and mystery shopping exercises.” Stuart continues.

“We self-regulate and train our technicians through the Automotive Technician Accreditation (ATA) programme whereby individuals commit to operate through an ethical code of conduct. This is done through our HiQ training Academy.

“We also invest in an online recommendation tool so visitors to the website can rate their HiQ experience and give honest feedback for everyone to see.

“These are just some of the tools we have in place to ensure honesty and transparency across the entire network and though we welcome the decision to keep MOT testing the same, we never complete any unnecessary work.”