MARCH 2024 AFTERMARKET 55 www.aftermarketonline.net one, but made out of the same polyester that we use for the hard wearing stuff for the normal seat covers, but it saves them having to use the single-use rolls of 100 plastic covers.” Income stream There’s more though: “Seat covers are still the core, but it's floor mats, steering wheel covers, boot liners, things like that. We've tried to keep it relevant to our market as well. We’re about no gimmicks, and it's got to be quality.” On how garages can capitalise, Cliff noted: “It’s definitely a good additional income stream because you've got your customers and particularly depending on where they are, if you're in Cornwall, you've got a lot of surfing customers. ‘Oh, look, you can keep your seats dry’.” On display options, Cliff observed: “You can either have a counter display holder for seat covers, or we do a 16-piece stand that does not take up massive amount of room. One thing we do know is that if people have them, they do sell more. Sounds fairly obvious, but if they're there and people go, ‘oh, hold on, seat cover’. We know for the most part, if someone's going into a motor factor or a garage, they're probably going in for a wiper blade, litre of oil, one of those sort of things.” One of the covers in packaging is about the same size as a bottle of oil. We see what they are doing. “Yes, exactly,” smiled Cliff, “but they really work. We know we're not the most important thing, but if someone’s got the space, that's a useful tool.” In its warehouse, the company holds around four months’ worth of stock. As well as the UK, the company sells its products across Europe, including France, Germany, Lithuania, Holland, Iceland, and Ireland, which is its biggest European customer. Cliff commented: “We've got a very good distributor, Carcessories, in Dublin and they are our main distributors and will supply out to the motor factors.” The company is also able to provide embroidered logos for those that want this: “Agricultural dealers have a load of tractors at the front of their showroom and people will be jumping in and out of them in dirty boots. A lot of them have got into buying seat covers for these tractors for display with their logo on them. They also give them away with a tractor sold. A farmer is going to pay £80,000-plus for a tractor. To give them a seat cover with it as well isa nice gesture, and they get a bit of free advertising. The agricultural dealers have really bought into the embroidery.” Design While the covers are manufactured in China, the embroidery is done in the UK, as is the design, as we mentioned before. The next stop on our tour took us to the heart of this side of the business; The studio where the designers put together the seat covers. Explaining the design process, Head Designer Charna Cole said: "We use Gerber Technology digitising and patterning software in our design and development process. We start by taking measurements and hand drawn shapes of the seat and then digitise into the pattern design software. This software allows us to further develop and smooth out these initial shapes and lines into fully fledged seat cover patterns with up to one millimetre accuracy. We can then print these patterns out using our plotter to make physical test samples in-house, with speed and accuracy. Only once we are completely happy with the fit, functionality and design of the sample do we then send it off to production." Charna added: “Actually getting hold of the seats in the first place is probably one of the trickiest things. Then, when they are done, Sometimes we do videos or instructional videos of how to fit things, especially the tailored seats, because there'll be things like foam tuckins.” Invested Cliff continued: “People need to be able to quickly find the right seat cover and be confident that they're buying the right thing. On the website, we've got a seat cover finder, and this tells you what you need.” On availability, he said: “The traditional motor factor, for example, doesn’t want to hold as much stock now. If they buy it direct from us, we can get it to them next working day.” One of their more recent offerings is a waterproof seat cover tailored to fit for the MAN TGE double passenger. Cliff said: “We work with some manufacturers and produce their seat covers, so you won't have Town & Country Covers on it, but it'll be, in this case, MAN. We're lucky enough to have a couple of relationships, with MAN as I mentioned, and also Isuzu Truck as well. It's a source of pride.” “The AA fleet have our seat covers as well. That puts a smile on my face every time I see an AA van go by, because I know full well that it's got one of our seat covers in there.” Cliff added: “Everyone here really knows way too much about vans, and what seats are in what vans and what model numbers. It's just insane. I think that's the beauty of this place is that people are invested in it, and everyone does genuinely care about it.” People need to be able to quickly find the right seat cover and be confident they’re buying the right thing ”
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