As we close the book on 2021 it’s amazing to see what we have gone through as a society, but I won’t bore you and talk about lockdowns and covid as I don’t want to tell you something you already know. However, what I will say is that as an industry I have heard more good than bad, and whilst not the best year for everyone it HAS been a positive year for many.
It was nice to see familiar faces at recent exhibitions and I hope to see more of you in 2022. So, what have we got in store for 2022?
Well, on the note of exhibitions, Lockexpo is finally looking to go ahead after being cancelled this year, Autowave will be sponsoring this expo and expect to see some innovative products launched and as ever some great deals. We have built quite a reputation at shows don’t expect things to change.
Having just opened our new facility in Bucharest we plan on having a much larger presence in Europe, through our distributors and directly. Europe is an exciting territory for Autowave and having a base there is absolutely essential. This will also help with our UK distribution as we will be moving some of the manufacture, assembly and development to Europe so logistics issues we face when importing from China will affect us less.
We will continue our expansion into new territories with a hub in UAE planned for late 2022, more details on this will come next year.
Having brought a fresh energy into the industry over the last few years, we plan on continuing to set market trends, we will be releasing some new products that will complement the locksmith offering and maximise profit opportunities.
We were flattered by the response we have received to our webinars and online training guides, 2022 will see us put many more resources into this. Our new approach to training has been welcomed by the industry and we will be hosting more webinars and ‘byte size’ training sessions.
We will be working closer with manufacturers to develop the tools we sell. Most of the industry know already, we sell every tool worth buying. When we first took OBDstar on a few years ago, it was considered a basic device, now it’s one of best devices available at the price point. This is down to the development and feedback we provide. As the official UK distributors of Obdstar, Xtool, Lonsdor, Bosscomm, Xhorse, JMD, ACDP, CGDI and Auto-XT we will continue this development in 2022 to ensure all our products continue to excel.
As vehicle immobiliser systems become more complex, the need for more tech support for our customers has become apparent, 2022 will see the introduction of additional tech support staff and a new ticketing system. We’ll introduce you to our newest member of the tech support in our “meet the team” article next issue.
Last year saw the launch of our new website, offering the only live VRM remote and key lookup in the industry (if you haven’t tried it go to www.AutoWave.co.uk and enter a reg). Feedback so far has been fantastic, we will be developing the site further in 2022 to provide additional resources to our customers, giving access to programming information using our devices and vehicle information. Keep your eyes out for updates.
We’re looking forward to 2022 and the excitement it will bring, Autowave will continue to drive forward. As we grow, we will keep our personal touch and as ever if I walk past a phone that is ringing I will answer it, so expect to hear me on the phones (when time allows).
I’m always open to feedback and suggestions so if you want to see something new, feel we could do more of, or simply want to find out what’s happening at Autowave feel free to drop me a line.