Carcraft wins with The Parts Alliance
Published: 19 March, 2019
East Sussex garage Carcraft MOT and Service Centre Ltd has become a major prize winner in the ongoing ‘Original Experience’ promotion being run by The Parts Alliance.
The business, based in Rye, has been running 20 years, undertaking a wide range of MOT and service work on all models of car. Business partners Phil Avery and Joel Chandler both enjoy classic car restoration outside of work.
It was Joel who found the winning scratch card. He will enjoy a VIP trip with flights and accommodation to Sardinia in June courtesy of Delphi and The Parts Alliance, including a close-up view of the Italian leg of the WRC rally.
The ‘Original Experience’ is supported by Delphi, Comma, MANN-FILTER and NGK. Until the end of March, all qualifying OE quality products purchased from The Parts Alliance member branches will come with a scratch card.
“There are more amazing motoring experiences to win and a total pot of 65,000 prizes,” said Simon Moore, Head of Marketing at The Parts Alliance. “The serious message of course is to encourage garages to use quality products from brands they can rely upon to ensure motorists gain the ‘original experience’.”
Among snack boxes, t-shirts, beanie hats, wall clocks, mugs, playing cards and more, there are luxury trips still to be won, including a once in a lifetime trip to the Ferrari factory in Maranello, a VIP trip to the GT Series in Germany along with opportunity to drive six cars flat out around Bedford Autodrome during a PalmerSport day.
The ‘Original Experience’ runs to the end of March. Garages can find out more by visiting www.theOE.co.uk.
- The Parts Alliance deliver ‘The Original Experience’
The Parts Alliance has launched ‘The Original Experience’. Throughout March and April, garage customers will receive ‘Original Experience’ scratch cards with each purchase of Delphi brake pads, MANN-FILTER cabin and oil filters, Comma 5 litre Performance Motor Oil and NGK spark plug sets.
- Shifting demands, shifting gears
Garages that thought they would be veering away from MOTs in favour of essential repairs during the Coronavirus lockdown are still doing MOT tests at roughly the same rate, it has been suggested.
While DVSA figures showed a 78% drop in MOT performed between 30 March and 24 April, marketing agency Digital Incubator says the independent garages it works with that remained open during the lockdown have not seen such a steep drop.
“We have a lot of garage clients that have switched from MOT campaigns to clutch and gearbox work,” explained Jamie Stoulger, Sales Director and Operations Manager at Digital Incubator. “However, our clients are still generating a steady flow of MOT enquires.”
Campaigns
The marketing agency works with garages across the UK, and currently has over 1,200 motor trade campaigns ongoing. 80% of customers are in the independent sphere.
Jamie continued: “Regardless of the MOT not being relevant, people are still getting their cars picked up. A lot of our clients run a collect and delivery service. We are running that via the ad campaigns and on the website.”
There has been an impact, Jamie confirmed, but a mild one at best, and work overall continues: “MOTs have slowed down slightly, that just what it is, but regardless of us being in the middle of this pandemic, if someone still has to go into work and their car breaks down, they still need to get it repaired. They are not going to just leave it on the side of the road and deal with it six months later. You need it done. As a result, our clients are still generating leads.”
Performance
We asked Jamie he thought this has taken many of their garage clients by surprise. “I wouldn’t say so,” he replied. “There are a lot of franchised dealerships and service centres that have just closed their doors without even thinking about it. They just went ‘we can get funding, let’s just put everyone on furlough’. The garage businesses that decided to pummel through this, they are still performing. There might be a small dip in some cases, but across the board, our averages have not really dropped. I don’t want to make a bold statement and say it isn’t affecting anyone – it is – but they are on average not far behind where they usually are. It has hit them, but we are not talking about 50%. The drops in business are probably around 10% to 15%.”
Situation
On what has been in many cases blanket closure by across much of the franchised network, Jamie observed: “I worry about the outlets that are closing their doors without making the slightest attempt at generating business. It’s still out there. People forget that. Across the board, if you think about it logically, there might only be 50% of the business available, but if 80% of the outlets are closing down, the garages staying open will benefit. I think a lot of businesses are going to come back to a very big decline in their own customer base. Their customers have had chance to test another garage out. If they had a better service, I know where they will go the second time around.
“I think some businesses have taken things a little too far. There are things you can put in place, like contactless pick-up and delivery. Dealerships could have put in place what the independents have done to keep their workers safe and the customers safe. If you can, do everything contactless. A lot of companies are going to go bust because of this. The best bet is to do things safely, ensure it is all contactless, but keep the doors open. The business is out there, they just need to be a bit more open about how to get it.”
- The Parts Alliance continue 'Big Drive' to win customers
The Parts Alliance is rolling out ‘The Big Drive’ as the latest in a series of national promotions. Billed as the ‘Luxury Edition’ and running until the end of November, the promotion gives garage customers the chance to win a Jaguar XE in either the Portfolio or R-Sport models.
- Study shows small business confidence bounce-back
With the end of the MOT extension in sight, and the easing of lockdown meaning more custom coming through the door, you would expect business confidence to rise in the aftermarket. Now, new figures have shown that the proportion of all UK small businesses predicting growth has almost doubled in just three months – from 14% to 27%.
- Coronavirus causes 60% of garages to close
More than 60% of garages in the UK could have shut their doors since the COVID-19 lockdown began, a survey suggests.
