It was all go go go at Unipart – Nottingham’s Karting event

Jason with the Unipart - Nottingham Team

Unipart Automotive - Nottingham got all in a spin last Wednesday when they arranged a staff team building race night at PF International Kart circuit near Grantham. Our very own Jason Bavin, Regional Sales Manager for the North went along for support and took part in what was an action packed (but rather wet) night full of bumps and crashes.

Race awards were presented to the staff by some of the Unipart team who included Pete Brown, Area Sales & Operations Manager, Dave Clelland – Business Development Manager and Ian Parsons – Branch Manager.

Unipart commented on the event saying “A great time was had by all and a few crashes made the night more of a challenge ...as did the wet weather. Many thanks to Jason & Sykes Pickavant for their support”

Another successful event from the guys at Unipart, although Jason may have to put up with a bit of stick for a while as he finished in second to last place! Well Done Jason!

Unipart Automotive is the UK’s largest independent supplier of car parts, workshop consumables and garage equipment to the aftermarket. For further details click here

It’s time we had a website redesign!

Some of you will have seen our current website – www.sykes-pickavant.com and as informative as it is, general feedback shows that there is a great need for a comprehensive search facility and a spare parts list. 

You will be pleased to know that we have now contacted several web design companies, giving them a brief of our requirements and so in the next couple of weeks we should see things starting to move in the development of a new site. The project will take a few months from start to finish but if anyone has any ideas, requests or suggestions as to what they would like to see as part of the all new website, then please do drop us a line via our Facebook page CLICK HERE or via email – sales@sykes-pickavant.com 

It’s always good to know what users of the site would like to see so all comments welcome.

Dr Bob - Problem Solver of a disassembled Honing Set!

Cylinder Honing Set

This week Dr Bob received a query about our Cylinder Honing Set (02800000) and he was quick off the mark to solve the problem. The customer, Bill, had called to say that he had taken the tool apart and was unsure of how to put this back together and in typical Doctor Bob fashion, he was able to delve into his library of all things technical and emailed a photo of the assembly order of the tool to Bill – Job done and one happy customer!

Bill also commented on Doctor Bob’s quick solution on a website called – www.realclassic.co.uk - a site dedicated to classic motorcycles. See the comment that Bill kindly posted on the message board page – under the heading ‘Service Stars’ - June 13th. The site provides an array of information about classic motorcycles and offers friendly expert advice from people who share a passion for old motorcycles - A great biking site for any enthusiastic rider.

Success at Mechanex

We had a busy couple of days at the Mechanex Motor Trade show in Harrogate this week. It was good to see so many people turn up and find out about the latest products to hit the automotive industry.

Our stand at Mechanex

Huge thanks to our friends at LUK / FAG who were demonstrating our new GEN2 VAG Bearing tool (08125500) – This was a popular one with the crowds as the guys at LUK did around 30 demos of this tool in one day!

There were a couple of tools in particular that many visitors to our stand were talking about and these were the Universal Press & Pull Sleeve Set (08780000) and the recently launched TPMS Tool (30661000). It was great to see so many requests for workouts too – our Sales reps are going to be kept busy over the coming weeks visiting these people and promoting some of our latest products.

We were also thrilled at the request from a couple of fellow exhibitors who asked if they could borrow some of our products to display and help raise the image of their stands during the show…….. It’s good to know that the SP name is appreciated by many within the industry!

Thanks to all those people who came to see us on the stand and provided us with some valuable feedback that we can use for future product development. Hope to see you again at one of our future shows!

Made in Britain – Challenge Dr Bob!

As a company we are always being bombarded with requests for new products and whilst we are always up for a challenge, some turn out to be even too wacky for us! However, one request that came across my desk recently was a tool to make working on suspension quicker and easier. We were pleased to work with a local manufacturer – Conveyer Engineering and local garage owner Paul from Trust Automotive to develop the tool and after several prototypes and test sessions we have now got a successful tool – the McPherson Strut Lifter on the market. If you have any ideas for a new tool or have any problems that may require a new tool being developed – then get in touch. We would love to hear from you!   

McPherson Strut Lifter in action