Arvin Expand Technology Centre

Arvin Replacement Products (Timax) have refurbished and re-equipped their UL (ISO 9001) accreditaed UK Centre for Technical Excellence in Blackpool in order to expand their exhaust and catalyst new parts development, engineering and quality operations.

The move represents a £650,000 investment in technology and includes the acquisition of additional plant for the Centre’s design and quality engineering functions and the strengthening of the technical personnel team from 30 to 36. Blackpool is one of four Arvin Replacement Products Centres of technical Excellence for new parts development and Type Approval testing serving Europe.

The centre will now play its part in the development and introduction of 500 new exhaust and catalyst parts over the next twelve months as Arvin Replacement Products accelerates its efforts to further improve the width and relevance of its European parts range. (11/99)

SKF Extends its T-MEC Component Assembly Service

SKF is extending its capability to design, manufacture and supply fully completed assemblies and sub-assemblies combining bearings and adjacent parts such as attachment systems, guide rails or anti-derailment guards.

The company currently supplies fully assembled or ready to fit sub-assemblies including safety critical components to materials handling, building trade and automotive industries as well as household appliances, garden tool and sports equipment manufacturers (11/99).

Trade-Only Show for European Automotive Technology and Motorsport Engineering Industries

Automotex, a new trade-only show, will cater for specialist manufacturers and suppliers of the mainstream automotive industry as well as motorsport design, engineering and production companies. It will be the first ever show held at London’s brand new, state-of-the-art exhibition centre, ExCel (pictured), over the three days of November 21-23 2000.

Automotex will be organised by Montgomery Exhibitions and is supported by:

The Financial Times’ Automotive publications; the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA); the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (I.Mech.E); Professional Engineering Publishing (producers of Automotive Engineer, Global Automotive Network and Professional Engineering); Race Tech magazine; British Government Department of Trade & Industry (DTI); the DTI Foresight Vehicle programme and the Institute of British Carriage & Automobile Manufacturers (IBCAM).

A range of inward trade missions will be organised at the show in conjunction with the DTI, while the I.Mech.E and MIA will host a series of conferences and seminars (11/99).

Daewoo Opens Aftersales Centre in Derby

Daewoo has opened its third dedicated service centre at Pride Park, Derby, where it will serve the city and the surrounding towns of Burton-on-Trent, Belper, Chesterfield and Mately, offering a full service and MoT capability.

Facilities at the Derby centre include 10 service/lift bays, an MoT bay and viewing area, a tyre and dry valet bay, a large parts storage facility, a valeting bay and a customer waiting room with free refreshments. The service centre represents an investment of over £200,000 and will also create new jobs in the Derby area.

When Daewoo launched its direct sales network in the UK in 1995, Derby was one of two locations to be chosen as the company’s first flagship Motor Show outlets. Nearly four years later the Derby sales outlet at the Meteor Centre has registered 2,311 cars. On opening, the new aftersales centre will carry out approximately 100 services a week, a figure that will rise as recruitment is completed.

Pictured is the official opening of the outlet conducted by Daewoo’s Head of Commercial Operations Jeff Georgiou (11/99).

Delphi Automotive Systems Announce New Aftermarket Strategy

At the Equip Auto exhibition in Paris Delphi Automotive Systems announced changes to its aftermarket strategy, in particular, the integration of the equity of several well-known Delphi regional brands, including De Carbon, Diavia, Texalarm, and Freedom under one strong global master brand name: Delphi. The Delco Freedom brand of batteries will transition to Delphi Freedom by the end of 1999 (11/99).

Tenneco Automotive Europe Goes On-line

Tenneco Automotive, the manufacturer of Monroe shock absorbers and Walker exhaust systems, has announced the launch of a dedicated website for Europe, the Middle east and Africa.

Located at www.eu.tenneco-automotive.com, the new site is divided into easy-to-use categories providing information on suspension and shock absorbers as well as exhaust systems and catalytic converters. Also available is the latest news on Tenneco Automotive including its annual report, recruitment opportunities within the group and a library of past and present press information and accompanying images. (11/99)

Toyota Expands European Parts Centre

Toyota Parts Centre Europe (TPCE) has completed an expansion to its warehouse facility at a cost of nearly BEF 850 million (EURO 21 million). The 30,000sqm expansion helps establish TPCE as one of the top five warehouses in Europe dedicated to automotive distribution with a total of 67,700sqm.

TPCE is the central warehouse for Toyota and Lexus parts for 26 Toyota distributors in Europe, shipping 25 million individual parts in 1998. Throughput is expected to jump by 25% this year and another 20% in the year 2000 (11/99).

FAI Expands Technical Express

FAI Automotive have announced the expansion of its Technical Express Service to cut the time it takes for motor factors to receive a technical report on returned products. From 1 December 1999 all the company’s customers will be guaranteed a report on any warranty with labour claims within 15 working days.

A year ago Technical Express was only available to key accounts. Now, however, the service will be available to all FAI’s customers.

In the event of any FAI product being returned with a labour claim, factors contact the Technical Express Hotline, where the operator will quote a reference number for the claim and arrange for its collection. The factor writes the reference number on the package containing the component, which will be collected by Securicor at FAI’s expense (11/99).