Strategically well-positioned in the East of England, ISN has set up its own little empire that spreads across The Fens and beyond, with a number of sites serving the overall business. Our visit started at the company’s showroom, on an industrial estate in rural Cambridgeshire. Here, prospective and existing customers can get a close-up look at the equipment. A wide array of lifts and machines from across the ISN portfolio is on display, taking in ISN Garage Assist, Tyre Bay Direct and the various brands, including Hofmann Megaplan, Balco and Cascos, offered by the two companies that sit under the ISN Europe banner. The site is also used for training, and when we were there, a local supplier had a number of staff being instructed on the latest tyre changing machines by Andy Currell, their Training Manager. ISN has its main office nearby, but also has meeting facilities above the showroom, which was where we were able to sit down with the original founder of Hofmann Megaplan, and now Chief Executive Officer James Boon. Market leader Starting with some background, James said: “The foundation of this business was Hofmann Megaplan, which I started in 2004. It became market leader and then in 2016 54 AFTERMARKET NOVEMBER 2023 ON THE ROAD www.aftermarketonline.net Aftermarket recently had a look at what goes on behind the scenes at ISN Europe, the brand above ISN Garage Assist, Tyre Bay Direct and more was acquired by Integrated Supply Network (ISN), who are the largest independent tool supplier in the USA. No one in the UK had heard of them, because they had no presence here at that time and, even in the USA, were largely a distribution business handling famous brands like Milwaukee, Bosch and Robinair. “They had acquired a sizable garage equipment business in the States, realised it went hand in glove with tools and decided they wanted to expand over here. They identified a number of strategic businesses including Hofmann Megaplan, Tyre Bay Direct, J&S Products in Norwich and AMN in Leicester, which was purely a garage equipment service business. You put that together and make it greater than the sum of its parts. Ultimately it has become ISN Europe, which now trades as three different businesses; ISN Garage Assist, Tyre Bay Direct and ToolTruck.” He continued: “We sell some great brands; Apart from Hofmann Megaplan, we’ve got Balco, we have the Spanish-built lift, Cascos, and we have Rav, an excellent Italian brand. I always like to think of us as custodians of the world's best equipment brands. We want to set our stall out with brands and products that we have exclusivity on, that we can really be loyal to and work with long-term, but more importantly, they enable us to be a complete one-stop-shop. “We start right at the entry level with Redback, which DOWN ON THE FARM
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ0NzM=