Pro-Align’s Quick Tread Edge has joined the Quick Check Drive in offering garages the opportunity to identify servicing opportunities with great speed and efficiency, while also offering a customer-friendly interface designed to support businesses’ relationship with their customers. The exclusive distributor of Hunter garage equipment also explains how electric vehicles are increasing the need for accurate and efficient wheel balancers.
Pro-Align vehicle diagnostic expert and Hella Gutmann will bring a hands-on workshop experience to Lanarkshire in Scotland in November 2021. The event, giving business owners and vehicle technicians from across Scotland an opportunity to trial on some of the world’s leading industry systems, will be hosted by New College Lanarkshire on 17 November. Pro-Align is the sole UK distributor of leading US wheel servicing equipment brand Hunter. Hella Gutmann is a pioneer of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) calibration for the independent aftermarket. Recognising the increasing synergies between their areas of expertise, the two companies became brand partners earlier in 2021.
Wheel alignment checks offer garages the opportunity to demonstrate professional customer service while boosting profitability considerably, with a sizable proportion of the car parc suffering from misalignment, according to a leading garage equipment company. Pro-Align, the distributor of Hunter garage equipment products, says that 70 per cent of cars on the road today are misaligned. This, it continues, means there is a prime opportunity for workshops to help identify these issues through free alignment checks for every customer, regardless of what they had originally booked in for. After returning the initial outlay on machinery, Pro-Align says realignment jobs can then typically return profit margins of 88 per cent.
One of the UK’s leading independent vehicle repair groups, Motofix has extended its four-wheel alignment capabilities with a new Hunter wheel aligner, supplied and installed by UK distributor Pro-Align. The Towcester firm recently completed the latest installation at one of Motofix’s repair facilities in Northampton, allowing customers to access premium four-wheel alignment.
Workshop equipment and wheel alignment specialist Pro-Align has appointed a former Kwik Fit branch manager to its sales team. Tom Burkett, a former director and owner of a mobile tyre fitting service and branch manager at Kwik Fit, has been appointed to join the team as a sales executive, covering the Midlands and South Wales region. The Hunter distributor said the addition of Burkett will provide “even greater levels of support to workshops across the country.”
Wheel servicing equipment manufacturer Hunter has launched the fourth generation of the Revolution tyre changer. The top of the range, fully automatic changer has been upgraded to suit the needs of high-volume tyre shops, according to the brand’s UK distributor Pro-Align.
The development of modern car technology has accelerated as fast as ever before and manufacturers producing the systems that allow workshops to service these vehicles effectively have also developed at a fast rate. In some cases, the development has been a technological necessity needed to keep pace with vehicle development, but in other cases, the development is driven by the vision to provide a better, more efficient servicing solution.
While sales of eco-friendly electric and hybrid cars have been slowly accelerating for a number of years, figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that for the first time ever, sales of new electric and hybrid cars recently overtook that of diesels for the first time ever. Although we’re probably still some time away from the real tipping point of mass adoption of electric vehicles in the UK, workshops are being advised that they need to prepare for this now, as they will only see more and more EVs and hybrids coming through their doors.
BMW AG has approved the Hunter RoadForce Elite (RFE) diagnostic wheel balancer in its global workshops. The system, distributed in the UK by Hunter partner Pro-Align, simulates the forces of the tyre on the road to match more accurately running conditions, and therefore increase ride comfort. The system is also designed to increase efficiency, helping to resolve the most challenging wheel vibration issues.
Roughly 18 months after Clive Seabrook joined Pro-Align, Tyres & Accessories caught up with the relatively new CEO in order to find out more about how the right equipment and services can add value to garage businesses, especially in the post-lockdown environment.
Challenging times need innovative solutions, so Pro Align responded to the pressures brought about by lockdown by seeing by choosing not to approach the circumstances as a commercial opportunity, but rather by responding to the customer instead:
Pro-Align is offering two new systems that have been added to an expanded range of equipment to workshops, bodyshops and tyre retailers looking to cut their operating costs and reduce vehicle repair times.
Pro-Align is targeting workshops looking to grow their business in 2020 with a new offer designed to reduce equipment investment costs and lower the bar to improving service capabilities. The £9,999 Ultimate Starter Bundle includes three key workshop systems, offering a saving of almost £2,000 when compared with buying the pieces of equipment individually (which would cost £11,985). Included within the bundle are the Hunter TCX 52 tyre changer, the Hunter SmartWeight Pro wheel balancer and a Teknel Butterfly induction heater, making it an ideal package for those looking to enter tyre servicing, upgrade or replace existing equipment.
UK wheel servicing equipment supplier Pro-Align has launched a new website. Featuring a modern, clean design the new platform puts customers at the heart of the online journey by providing easier navigation, a fully integrated experience and product recommendations based upon their specific business type.
Distributor of the Hunter brand of wheel servicing equipment Pro-Align has introduced the US company’s new wheel alignment inspection system to the UK and Ireland markets. The Hunter Quick Check Drive is one of the industry’s first ‘drive-thru’ non-contact wheel alignment inspection systems, according to the distributor. It adds that the system’s operation without any need to attach sensors or targets, or for the vehicle to stop, means that labour costs are minimised and alignment opportunities can be identified in a matter of seconds.
With all new cars now coming equipped with TPMS, uneven tyre wear as a result of under (or over) inflated tyres should theoretically become a thing of the past. That theory has yet to materialise in practice; the latest Department for Transport figures reveal that around 1,000 casualties are caused every year on the UK’s roads from tyre-related incidents. And perhaps the brave new world of tyre safety promised by required TPMS fitments may have been inspired by too much blue sky thinking anyway. With many drivers now relying on TPMS systems to advise them when to top up their tyres with air, it is possible that some are checking their tread depth even less frequently than before.
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Teknel, Pro-Align