June 2021

JUNE 2021 AFTERMARKET 21 www.aftermarketonline.net How are you finding your customers? Both in terms of their reaction, and getting them in the first place! Due to our combined experience in the aftermarket, we had already cultivated solid relationships with many customers and businesses in the industry, which certainly helped when Adrian and I took over EAG. Since then, we have continued to manage and grow these relationships, as well as develop new ones with businesses we may not have dealt with in the past. I believe that our customers come to us because of our reputation in the aftermarket, as well as our extensive range of product and availability. We put a lot of investment and focus into our customer service and it’s something we pride ourselves on. What challenges and surprises have there been along the way, and what have you learnt? I think the biggest challenge was getting the company sorted when we took it over and growing it to what it is now. Running a business is a difficult task, and Adrian and I want to make EAG one of the largest suppliers in the UK, something that we’re on our way to becoming. Luckily, we haven’t had too many surprises along the way, but one thing that Adrian and I have both learnt from our years in the market, is to hire the right people. We have an incredible team at EAG and without them, we wouldn’t be able to do the great work that we do. We also have a desire to ensure there’s the product availability for our customers, which we still have some way to go on, but we are working on increasing both the range and availability, in addition to improving cataloguing and pushing sales through our online trade portal and through TecCom. Does experience help? Or do you find you learn more than you already knew? I think that experience does help a lot, but as the industry continues to evolve, we all need to adapt and understand new technology and systems that are developing and this is something that no amount of experience can help with. Adrian and I have made sure that we hire the best people for the job, who have the experience and know the aftermarket and its products inside out, as that’s what makes a good sales person and helps our customers the most. These are also the people that can share their knowledge with us and the rest of the company, so it’s certainly a win-win situation. If you’d had the choice, would you have picked the pandemic as a time to be rolling into year two? What particular issues did this cause? I don’t think there’s ever a good time for a pandemic! Having it happen so early in our business was unfortunate, but like many other companies, we had to adapt and quickly. I feel that we achieved this and went on to have a successful year despite everything, also as the industry was allowed to remain open, we found that business remained steady for us and many others during 2020. Obviously, our main concern was for our staff and their safety, so we ensured that we implemented all of the safety precautions the government advised, which is difficult in a situation like a warehouse, but we were very stringent with it and will continue with a cautious attitude until this pandemic has eased. Do you think COVID-19 inspired any innovations for EAG in terms of approach or anything else that have really worked out that might not have happened otherwise? Due to growth and the reliance on delivery because of the pandemic, we invested more money into our delivery fleet and also began offering our local customers same day delivery and national customers next working day delivery. We have also been working very closely with MAM to improve and enhance the IT systems that we inherited. This has included the implementation of the MAM Warehouse Management System, which is already resulting in improved efficiency and accuracy of processing orders. You knew starting up that Brexit was going to be an issue however – any bumps on this side? Thankfully, we have not been impacted as much as our competitors, who rely on the Far East for their products. They have suffered from supply delays and increased costs due to freight and materials. This has clearly benefitted us, since we source the majority of our parts from the UK. I think with Brexit we just had to be prepared, listen carefully to all of the information we were given by the government and decide our action plan from there. We knew that leaving the European Union was going to have an impact on every industry, especially the aftermarket, Experience does help, but as the industry continues to evolve, we all need to adapt ”