stubs
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
User status: Offline
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Am going to see my bank next week to enquire about some help in buying a car breakers yard... currently busy prepairing some questions for the business adviser & also plenty research into the trade.
I've spoken to the current owner who is a very nice chap, very helpful and had some pleasantly surprising answers to some of my questions. Should hopefully be getting over to him at the weekend to check over the books etc...
If anyone has any usefull advice or experiences to share with me I would love to hear it 
The yard holds approx 200 cars and has some nice features such as 4post ramps & nice parts storage.
If all goes well and I end up buying, I would like to try & inventory ALL stock and keep an up to date database for fast & easy refrence for enquiries. Could then look at integrating into an online (up to date!) stocklist from a website, rather than customers having to use those annoying part request forms.
The yard I'm looking at is currently stocked with cars & parts, but I think I will be looking to head towards particular makes/models, or maybe look at focusing on "sports & performance"... however that will be dependant on the outcome of my researching
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DannyB
Premium Member
Registered: 6th Feb 08
User status: Offline
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best of luck mate
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Corsa_Joel
Member
Registered: 3rd May 07
Location: Dunstable, Bedfordshire
User status: Offline
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Good luck mate. 
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DAZ1985
Member
Registered: 3rd Sep 06
Location: Scholar Green, Cheshire
User status: Offline
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Focusing on sports and performance may limit how much business you get as the market for sports and performance cars as scrap wont be as large as everyday motors.
Still best of luck, hope it all goes to plan
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Ian
Site Administrator
Registered: 28th Aug 99
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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I'm up for getting the stock database on the web, great idea.
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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Tricky business, whys the current owner selling?
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Ian
I'm up for getting the stock database on the web, great idea.
Might be difficult/time consuming to maintain
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Ian
Site Administrator
Registered: 28th Aug 99
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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Cataloguing parts might be but once the database and web side is up it'll look after itself.
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WU-TANG- DAN
Member
Registered: 30th Nov 07
User status: Offline
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set up a log book of parts in stock, make it appear respectable.
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stubs
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
User status: Offline
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Current owner isn't selling as such.. we've been round all the yards in the area asking, and have managed to pursuade him
His family are all into buying & selling various business's so I guess he's now fancying a change and will be making a quick profit ready to invest elsewhere.
We've yet to sit down & discuss in detail, but on the face of things, he doesn't apear to be struggling, and the land lease seems pretty secure.
I'm all for rummaging around yards myself when "browsing" for parts, but when you're in need of a particular part, its quite annoying to have to resort to the likes of breakerlink or online request forms & wait for a call back. Then there's calling round the yard & having some muppet answer who doesn't know what stock they've got in... they either say "come down & take a look" or "we'll get back to you in 10 mins"
There's going to be 3 of us in on it (that's how many he currently has there too); 1 out on the road with the recovery truck, 1 running the yard & 1 manning the office, internet phones etc..
I plan to continue using breakerlink as they are good for UK mailorders, but I would like the website to contain detailed parts searching with instant results & even pictures of the car it would be off, if not the part itself. Detailed inffo like the mileage of the car its off could be made available, alongside price of the part, and if out of stock, previous prices to show as an example.
Many ideas, but I'm hoping actions will soon do the talking.
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ed
Member
Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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An online stock database would be absolutely amazing!
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MatG
Member
Registered: 26th Apr 02
Location: Birmingham UK
User status: Offline
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all the best Stu!! Hope it works out for you
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WU-TANG- DAN
Member
Registered: 30th Nov 07
User status: Offline
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what about a delivery service?
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stubs
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
User status: Offline
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Cheers guys!!
Delivery as in overnight UK, or local sameday stuff? I will be planning to do UK delivery yes.
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stubs
Member
Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by DAZ1985
Focusing on sports and performance may limit how much business you get as the market for sports and performance cars as scrap wont be as large as everyday motors.
Still best of luck, hope it all goes to plan
True!... I would still like a finger in it though. Might work out to be like 70/80% everyday stuff... the rest then sports, or particular model such as Subaru/Evo... something that's pretty common & worth the parts. Don't know yet though, it may not work out like that. Research, research, research.... 
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Onlinetock database 
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Timbaland
Banned
Registered: 20th Jan 07
Location: Glasgow
User status: Offline
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Being honest , You dont seem daft and know what your doing and you seem to know that the key pat in it is Research.
I, for one, hope it goes well, Simply because you seem to be putting the effort in.
All the best.
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WU-TANG- DAN
Member
Registered: 30th Nov 07
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by stubs
Cheers guys!!
Delivery as in overnight UK, or local sameday stuff? I will be planning to do UK delivery yes.
overnight UK, if you kept a good online database i would be a customer!
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