2:12 am, January 11, 2012
A NEW parts warehouse will be in the driving seat of Foray Motor Group’s 2012, pushing forward efficiency and profitability.
The group, with 10 Ford dealerships in south west England, has opened the new facility at High Post on the A345 between Salisbury, where the group is based, and Amesbury.
‘This new storage and distribution centre will bring real efficiency to the group’s parts sales and servicing business,’ explained Howard Jenkins, Foray Group parts director (pictured).
‘Parts sales contribute around a third of total group turnover so it’s important that this section of the business runs as efficiently as possible.’
The parts distribution activities for Foray have outgrown the space available in Salisbury, where a parts department will continue to operate to supply the workshop and retail sales at Edwards Ford in Churchfields, the group’s principal dealership and head office.
But the new location makes it easier to access the workshops in the other Foray centres – Andover, Bridgwater, Chard, Dorchester, Poole, Shaftesbury, Taunton, Trowbridge, and Yeovil – via the major roads network.
Foray Group also operates the National Clearance Centre which offers an all-makes obsolete parts service in the UK and enjoys international sales via eBay and Amazon. It recently acquired all existing parts stock for the Racing Puma and original Focus RS from Ford and is also in the process of gathering obsolete parts for other makes and models.
‘We will negotiate to buy obsolete or slow moving stock or manufacturers and dealers can donate them to boost the income of BEN, the motor trade’s own BENevolent fund.
‘We have an arrangement with BEN that 25 per cent of our earnings on obsolete parts donated through the scheme will be given directly to the charity,’ added Howard.
Foray Group has spent several years building up international parts sales and offers a next day dispatch service on internet orders. Buyers can look through approximately £4m worth of parts to find exactly what they need.
‘Moving our parts operation to High Post makes perfect sense for the whole group,’ said managing director Chris Yoxon. “‘t makes an important contribution to our business both through its direct sales and also because it supplies our own dealership workshops several times a day.’
