News 11 www.aftermarketonline.net NOVEMBER 2024 Shaikly Motor Company was named garage of the year in the ‘multilocation’ category at The Blend 2024. Shaikly was also presented with the British independent garage of the year at this year’s outing of the IGA’s British Independent Garage (BIG) awards. At The Blend event in Birmingham on September 28, Intelligent Auto Ltd and Lawson AutoTech received awards in the ‘1-4 staff’ and ‘5+ staff’ categories, respectively. The community’s garage of the year award went to Oldfields Garage, while Laura Guild of Lawson AutoTech received the staff recognition award. The community member of the year award was presented to Diana Whetton of PW Auto Repairs, and Castle Garage Ashby was honoured with the Garage Hive innovator award. At the IGA’s BIG event on September 20, each award winner received a cash prize of £1,000 at the NEC Birmingham ceremony. Winners of other BIG categories were: Supplier of the year, Euro Car Parts; garage management system of the year, TechMan; garage of the year, C R Allen and Sons; marketing strategy of the year, CCM; best newcomer award, Bear and Bee Garage; business improvement award, Mechanic Man; training and development award, Stourbridge Automotive; community hero award, Westgate Tyres; customer service award, Mereworth Motors; consumer choice award, Holmer Green Service Centre; innovation award, Shaikly Motor Company; specialist garage of the year, The MINI Repair Shop; independent used car retailer of the year, Available Car; small independent garage of the year, Oldfields Garage Services; large independent garage of the year, Hillclimb Garage. Automotive industry charity Ben received a donation of £10,000 from the IGA at the prize-giving ceremony. Late payments crackdown bid to support auto SMEs Garages and self-employed workers in the automotive sector are in line to benefit from new government plans to crackdown on the scourge of late payments to small businesses, say ministers. A new Fair Payment Code, replacing the old Prompt Payment Code, will be open to signatories this autumn — and will be designed to push businesses to pay faster, with “an exemplar gold category” for those paying suppliers within 30 days. Small business minister Gareth Thomas said the move will pave the way for a boost for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by speeding up cash flow. “Small businesses deserve to be paid on time, it’s as simple as that,” he said. Research by Aftermarket shows that the wholesale and retail trade sector, including vehicle repair workshops, accounted for 14% of all SME employment and 35% of SME turnover in the UK private sector in 2021 — according to most recent data from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. In the UK, an SME is defined as a business with fewer than 250 employees and a turnover of less than £50,000,000. The Federation of Small Businesses said its data shows that 52% of SMEs in the UK suffered from late payments every quarter in 2022. According to Small Business Commissioner, Liz Barclay, there are more than 5,000 signatories to the existing code, under which firms have committed to paying at least 95% of their suppliers within 60 days and 95% of small suppliers within 30 days. Garages honoured at The Blend, BIG events 01273 891162 info@kalimex.co.uk www.jlmlubricants.co.uk Workshop Hero Products DPF Cleaning Clean a blocked DPF in under 2 hours No need to remove the filter - keep the business in house Get your customers back on the road fast! Dissolves un-burnt oil remnants
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