Yeates 40th anniversary show
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OPENING OF NEW PREMISES CELEBRATED
• First in the field with the autumn coach shows was W.S. Yeates Ltd., which opened its display on Monday in considerably enlarged showrooms situated on the main A6, Derby Road, Loughborough. This show is also of the longest duration, as it continues for a fortnight, closing on October 25. Yeates is one of the oldest coach dealers in the country, having been established 40 years ago, and the company was therefore making this occasion one for celebration of the anniversary.
At the official luncheon attended by local dignitaries and executives from coachbuilders and chassis manufacturers, Mr. Val Wilson, commercial director, who has been with the company since its foundation, proposed the toast of the visitors. Replying, Mr. Gerald White, managing director of the Duple Group, stated that the company was the largest dealer in the country and now had a turnover of around £3m.This was a growth of nearly four times in six years.
The display comprises 15 of the latest coaches and buses of Plaxton and Duple make on Bedford and Ford chassis, nine of which are in operators' livery. The company is fortunate in being so well sited geographically and having such a spacious area for display and parking of the vehicles. Also on display is a large selection of secondhand coaches reconditioned to a high standard in Yeates' own workshop.
The new showrooms and workshops have been built only within the last 18 months and are most impressive. Importance is being attached to servicing and repairing of commercial vehicles and shown publicly for the first time is the new service area in which eight 401t-long coaches can be worked on at one time. The bays are approached through individual doors and the sunken workshop beneath the whole of the service area is estimated to be the largest of its type in the country.
The close proximity of MI motorway obviously brings a considerable amount of business in the form of repair and accident damage work. The company maintains a 24-hour service for this purl:rose.