As many of you know, I took over the reins following the Stafford Show in October and thought it would a good time to give you an update on where we are.
After previously working as a designer in construction for 45 years, it has been a big learning curve for me. There was a lengthy handover period, while I picked Simons brain for a couple of months, and even now he is still helping me with the odd item. Thank you Simon for being so patient.
We have introduced some new products, including tab washers, Rubber Plug Cap Sets with Leads, more screws and fixings, A1/A7 wiring harnesses and more rear shock options. I have a big list of other products to introduce, but it all takes time, finding suppliers, obtaining samples and testing before they are then deemed good enough to sell.
One big frustration has been the lack of Accent ignitions. I inherited a waiting list of about 20 people wanting them which took three months to fulfil and this resulted in me having to remove them from the website, due to the amount of enquiries we were receiving. They will be back, but it will only be intermittent due to the fact that they are manufactured in such small quantities.
Another problem was that we cannot currently ship to USA and Canada. We are unable to obtain product liability insurance for North America, due to the high costs of claims and litigation in those areas. I tried, but no-one will provide a standard policy, so we would have to go to Lloyds for a bespoke policy, starting at around £3,000, which is more than the profit on US sales last year!
It is not mandatory, but as I was a sole trader it would only takes one claim to risk losing my house. We have now gone through the process of changing to a limited company, so we may revisit this market in the future.
My original idea was to buy the business so I could work part time and spend more time with grandkids and working on my own projects. Well that didn’t work out as I work more hours now than I ever did. However, it is much more enjoyable work and hopefully as I get more organised it will become easier.
Thank you to all the customers and every one else that has helped along the way. Onwards and upwards
