Today UK Whitegoods reached the ripe old age of two. Some may say that this could be the “Terrible Two’s” as it’s commonly known however, we don’t think so. That said we do have a lot on over the next year.
Looking back over the last year, it’s not exactly been quiet either. We’ve accomplished a lot and we’ve had fantastic support from within the industry, from many manufacturers, work providers and insurers and, not least, our members and the independent trade in general. We appreciate all the support we have received over the past two years, thank you all.
The page hits, well what can I say? It’s been phenomenal over the past year, we thought we were doing great at the end of last year but we’ve almost equalled last year in it’s entirety in the first six months of 2005 which is fantastic.
We’ve seen the introduction of Repairs@ which is doing great and being used by the trade and public alike and everyone seems to love it, it’s a great tool and simplifies finding a good repairer for the public as well as giving the repairers great customer contact. There are now well in excess of sixty repairers registered on Repairs@ offering cover of the majority of the UK mainland after only five months and with hundreds of repairs successfully completed!
There are plans for Repairs@ to further enhance it and make it of even greater use, but more of that another time.
The subscribers have grown and we hope that those that have chosen to take part have seen benefit from the concept, we hope to be in a position to offer more in the near future.
Of the upcoming things that are happening, not least is, as you all know, that we are embarking on a program to offer training to any independent in the UK, free. This is totally new ground, it’s never been attempted before on the scale of which we’re doing it, but then UK Whitegoods has led the way and will do in many areas.
We have the upcoming UK Whitegoods September meeting, pencilled in for the moment to be held in Sibson, but certainly on the dates published. Should you wish to attend the meeting and find out more about UK Whitegoods, what we’re about and what we do please do come along but let us know as we may well be pushed for space. This promises to be one of the best meetings so far, but then we do always try to make the next one better than the last.
We are active in several other areas within the industry with several projects bubbling away nicely, rest assured we are working to the betterment of the independent repairers and as well as many others within the industry.
I would like to thank a ton of people for all the support that they’ve given me personally over the past year and there is simply not enough space to list everyone here and you’d be bored reading the list anyway but, not least of which my fellow admin staff Dave Conway and Kevin Heath. The lead moderators, Chris Chantrell, Martin Russell, John McKenzie, Sean Delaney and Mark Garner all do a fantastic and often thankless task, but they keep the site alive and on track. All the contributions have been excellent, the work tireless and outstanding, cheers once again guys.
I would also like to thank all the folks in general that contribute their time and knowledge to the site and I do hope that you all have fun doing it. You do make a difference and you are helping people, be it the public or your fellow trade members and I applaud the spirit in which you all contribute. The camaraderie shown from within the trade, both in the UK and globally, is simply superb between the engineers.
The future, well who knows where it will lead. But we have a few ideas”¦
Kenneth Watt