Foray Motor Group – Ford Car Dealers

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," explains Howard Jenkins, Foray Group parts director.

"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," adds Howard.

"It costs the other participants nothing as we arrange collection of parts for our warehouse - in fact you could argue that they gain by freeing up space in their storage centres that can be used for current models. The costs of their stock have long been written off but we can put them to good use."

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 £4 million worth of parts to find exactly what they need.

"Moving our parts operation to High Post makes perfect sense for the whole Group," says managing director Chris Yoxon. "It 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.

"Add to that the international sales and charity fundraising opportunities of NCC and its impossible to argue with the logic of centralising the operation. Howard and his team have put a great deal of work into making sure this happens while continuing to meet the daily needs of the Group and they are to be congratulated."

Caption: Howard Jenkins, Foray Group parts director, in the new Foray parts distribution centre at High Post.