Covid 19

The last time I wrote a blog “It’s tough out there!” we hadn’t even hit Covid 19. Prior to Covid-19 one of our main contracts had seized as the unnamed company entered administration and they weren’t the only local business that fell victim. Motor trade businesses of various sizes fell victim to a tough trade environment.

I didn’t envisage the craziness which would ensue as a result of Covid -19 and I mean if someone had said a year prior to this, we would have had to lockdown, close all businesses, huge sports events to be cancelled and bring the whole world to a standstill, most people would have laughed at you.

Lockdown was great on a personal level. It gave me quality time at home with my family instead my normal 6-day working week, it brought new experiences I got to share with my family and much needed time to do some home improvements. From a business level, it gave me time away from the business to make clear decisions, refocus and evaluate. All staff were furloughed at the start and we gradually brought staff back in as and when needed to keep our fleet customers and key workers on the road. It gave fleet managers the chance to organise services and repairs to be carried out whilst vans were not needed on the road or whilst they had time to do the things that normally get put on the back burner in the normal working environment.

As I write this and I hope it continues like this, ALL staff have returned from Furlough and we have had no casualties. In fact, we are hiring additional staff for the increased demand and it’s something we are immensely proud of.

I listened to many motor trade related podcasts during lockdown, especially the beginning, as I was seriously concerned about the impact of Covid-19 and the recovery of our business, if indeed we were able to make a full recovery.  I listened to positive characters within the trade and couldn’t help but think their positive outlook of a pent-up demand when we returned was exactly that – optimistic.

From a sales perspective we returned 8th June as permitted by the government and the guys were right, the pent-up demand was raging and customers wanted to let loose. We exceeded our normal target with only 75% of the usual time available. It was a huge relief !

July continued in the same vein and sales were snowballing, a common theme across the trade. It’s great to see everyone doing well and hopefully it has a knock-on affect across the country as we went into this together, I hope we all come out of it together.

We are half way through August now and we have already exceeded our normal sales numbers for this time of year. I hope it continues towards the end of the year and everyone enjoys an uplift in business.

If we can help in any way regarding your car, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Best wishes to all local businesses.

Craig