Will Rimell

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.

Politicians tell us the Games will bring in billions, but Richard Shortis of the Shortis Group wonders who will actually see the benefit. Here he wonders whether the effect of the games will actually damage business.

Goodwood is filled with lots of vehicle manufacturer/race team noise and nostalgia, but what sort of aftermarket flavour does it have? This year's show gave aftermarket suppliers a chance to mingle with the great British consumers at one of the UK's best motoring events.

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.

In CAT recently I listed the important elements for review in a modern garage and first on the list was volume. Volume is the key ingredient. However, as Joni Mitchell sang: “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone” and right now there must be several garages wishing that “a big yellow taxi” would come and take them away. Volume and marketing are synonymous yet their interests are opposed. When you have volume you don’t want the cost of marketing, yet when the volume dries up it’s too late to start marketing your business effectively.

CAT still has two pairs of Automechanika tickets to give away! Get in touch by emailing darren.moss@haymarket.com now to claim your free tickets. We'll be sending ticket vouchers out to the lucky recipients in the next few weeks. We'll also be arranging to meet up with all of our lucky ticket holders to get their thoughts on what promises to be an incredible show.