The garage equipment market remains buoyant especially for the MoT sector where new smokemeter legislation comes into force end-December, generating emission equipment sales. There is increasing demand for one-person test (OPT) upgrades due to huge savings that busy MoT stations achieve and this has created demand for play-detectors and usually new vehicle lifts. New MoT premises are invariably opting for Automated Test Lanes which require an upgraded computerized brake tester with auto prompts.
All of these current developments are stimulating sales which at Boston are running at record levels, where at any one time we have over 40 ATL and OPT bays in progress. The market is not responding to cut-price products as some suppliers expected. There are a number of Chinese vehicle lifts on offer but build quality, controls, spare parts and support are factors working against these products. Most buyers are aware that for the cost of two days downtime on a lift repair they could have paid a little extra for an established vehicle lift with a robust pedigree. This attitude prevails on all MoT equipment where testing stations literally come to a costly standstill if any one item of test equipment is not operating reliably and accurately.
We expend a considerable budget on development at Boston and all equipment is made to our own demanding specifications. We constantly have equipment in prototype and pre-production test stages with exciting new features to be launched later this year to enhance the simplicity, speed and safety of reliable MoT testing.
Boston's parent company has operated MoT stations for 35 years and has been supplying equipment for 20 years, some which we manufacture in the UK. We supply over 3000 testing stations with nationwide support and recently launched Boston (Scotland), and Boston (Kenya) in Nairobi where government emissions tests are being introduced.