July/August 2020

JULY/AUGUST 2020 AFTERMARKET 45 www.aftermarketonline.net “Franchised retailers have taken extensive steps adhering to both the Government and NFDA/SMMT industry guidelines. Businesses have been working hard to put all necessary measures in place to ensure the safety of staff and guests, which is the number one priority.” In Northern Ireland, car showrooms were allowed to reopen from 8 June. 3 June: Facetime – Bosch puts fully automated mask- production lines into operation Bosch has turned its hand to the production of face masks to help in the fight against COVID-19, and set to produce more than half a million per day. Developed by Bosch’s special- purpose machinery unit in just a few weeks, identical, fully automated production lines for face masks have been set up at several company locations. In addition to the lead plant for Industry 4.0 in Stuttgart-Feuerbach, where two lines are planned, mask production will be ramped up at the Bosch locations in Naganathapura, India, and Juárez, Mexico. A facility at the Rexroth plant in Erbach, Germany, will round off the manufacturing network. Overall, by the end of June, the production volume of the five lines was set to exceed ten million masks a month. Bosch is manufacturing surgical mask types I and II, which comply with the European DIN EN 14683 standard, and will use them mainly to protect its roughly 400,000 staff worldwide. Bosch also wants to make any excess capacity available to third parties, and is also making the designs, technical drawings, and assembly instructions of the lines available to other companies free of charge, as well as information about how the masks are packaged and distributed. 5 June: Online car maintenance queries up 87% as lockdown eases Garages may be able to pinpoint the kind of post-lockdown work coming through the door, with new research showing that online searches for how to tackle issues with car brakes, batteries and tyres have grown substantially over the last few months Analysis of search trends data conducted by car leasing provider AMT shows that queries for issues like seized brakes, flat batteries and deflated tyres have massively increased between February and May. The research shows that drivers are concerned about the repercussions of not using their car regularly, as searches for ‘not using car’ have increased by 85.7% since February, while ‘storing car’ and ‘long term car storage’ terms have risen by 81.8% and 40%. Most drivers are looking to combat seized brakes with searches up by 90.9%, while queries for a 12V car starter have risen by 75%.. Queries for ‘new car battery’ and ‘car battery online’ have increased by 21.9% and 21.7% respectively. 9 June: Absolute Alignment back to pre-lockdown sales levels Absolute Alignment reported sales for the month of May that matched pre- lockdown figures in March. Absolute Alignment’s Technical Director Chris Dear said: “In order to limit customer contact, we have uploaded to our website all of our demo and training videos – making them openly available in order to reduce the need for actual physical demonstrations of our equipment in workshops across the country. Our technical team is also available on the phone to talk potential customers through the virtual demonstrations of our equipment.” In addition, the company has increased its amount of storage space in Farnborough, so that its new stock of equipment arriving can be quarantined for a minimum of 72 hours before being moved, transported to customers or installed. 12 June: Garages count cost of 20.4% April economic contraction Garages could now see the scale of the economic challenge ahead, with figures being released that showed the UK economy shrank by 20.4% in April, which was the first full month of lockdown following the imposition of COVID-19 measures. The drop was the biggest monthly contraction since records began in 1997, beating the impact of the entire 2008-2009 banking crisis by a factor of three. With new car sales already down 97.3% in April and 89% down in May according to the figures from the SMMT, garages could expect to see demand rise as motorists keep their cars for longer. However, damage to the wider economy could mean that some drivers avoid even essential repairs. According to The Office for National Statistics (ONS) the drop was ‘historic’ and affected almost all areas of activity, including the aftermarket. The ONS also released figures looking at the larger picture, taking in the whole February-April period. This showed a 10.4% decline. 15 June: Garages eye regional furlough variation to gauge risks New stats on the furlough gave garages an idea of if their area of the UK is particularly exposed to potential job losses, once the government’s scheme comes to an end in October. The figures show the uptake of Coronavirus Jobs Retention (CJRS) and Self-Employment Income Support Schemes (SEISS) across the UK’s regions and nations. Under the CJRS, up until 31 May, more than 6.4 million jobs were furloughed in England, with more than 628,000 jobs furloughed in Scotland, 316,500 in Wales and nearly 212,000 in Northern Ireland. Under the SEISS, self-employed individuals in Scotland have made 146,000 claims totaling £425 million; 102,000 claims for £273 million made in Wales; 69,000 claims for £198 million in Northern Ireland. From just over 2 million claims in England, the total is nearly £6 billion. Looking at specific areas, the West Ham and Tottenham Parliamentary Constituencies have the highest number of furloughed employees, with 29,300 and 25,400 respectively. Birmingham and Leeds are the two Local Authorities with the highest number of people on furlough, with 122,800 and 88,200 respectively. Edinburgh, Belfast, and Cardiff have 58,400, 36,100 and 36,000 on furlough. This compares to 1.075 million in London as a whole.

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