ECP Life Magazine Issue 1 Dec 2017

ISSUE 1 December 2017

NEW

autoclimate TM

Hello team, We’ve seen a lot of change within our businesses over the last 12-months; a number of key acquisitions, the introduction of our T2 semi-automated operation, new branches, new initiatives, new products, new clients and a lot of new colleagues – to name just a few – and 2018 is going to be just as busy, if not more so! As part of our aims for 2018 and beyond, ECP Life is one of a number of activities being introduced to increase internal communications and engagement across our family of brands. The magazine will give us a channel to share more of what’s going on, what other colleagues are up to and keeping you up-to-date about other business news.

Thank you to everyone for all of your efforts in 2017, it’s been a year to remember, and a year of milestones that we wouldn’t have been able to achieve without the true ECP attitude of we’ll do whatever it takes to get it done… We are greater than the sum of our parts. We know that people make us who we are.

A sincere thank you to every single one of you, and season’s

greetings to you and your families.

Sukhpal

I know that there are lots of you out there who are doing really great things for your colleagues and our customers every day, and I encourage you to share your stories and feedback with us – so we can shout about just how great we really are!

A sincere thank you to every single one of you, and season’s greetings to you and your families

from Sukhpal &Martin

Team,

As we head towards the end of 2017, it’s never been more essential for us to pull out all the stops and end the year on a high! We’ve had a challenging few months, and we now need to work and pull together and make it a December to remember. We need to be on our “A” game every minute of every day. Remember, look after your customer during the festive period by going the extra mile, and they will

We know that we are greater than the sum of all the parts we sell – our people are definitely what makes us who we are! On behalf of Sukhpal and myself, I’d like to say a sincere thank you to every colleague for playing their part in ECP’s 2017. Like any chapter in life, it’s been one of those years full of activities, twists and turns - but the one thing that has really stood out is just how crucial it is for us to work as ONE team. Yes it’s been tough at times, but there’s also been massive successes too. The message and theme for 2018 must and needs to be… “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Wishing you and your families a relaxing Christmas, and look forward to seeing what we can achieve in 2018 as a Team ECP. Martin &Sukhpal

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never forget it. We must NOT miss a single opportunity to delight our customers and secure that sale.

” Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.

No matter what department you

work in, where you are located or even whether you are

customer facing – please don’t underestimate the part that you play in our business and market leading service to our customers – we all have our part to play! Look at it this way; for any car to run, it takes all the various parts to work together to move it!

A word from Dave

Hello,

and welcome to ECP Life, the new internal magazine for all colleagues across the Euro Car Parts family. This is the first edition of ECP Life, so we’ll be keeping

If you have any stories to share, want to know more about something that’s going on or just have an idea – then we really do want to hear from you! Get in touch via: internal.communications@eurocarparts.com I hope that you enjoy reading ECP Life, and thank you to everyone for making it happen. Finally, congratulations to Owen McDermott who won the naming competition, and as part of the start of the magazine he will also feature in the next 0-60 - so keep your eye out for the next edition!

it short for this one – but in future editions we’ll feature different things – including stories from around our family of businesses, feature stories and even something fun! We’ve packed as much in to this edition as we can. However, as Sukhpal mentioned I’m also really passionate that not only do we tell you about stuff that’s going on, but you also tell us about things so that we can share them. We also want to hear about things that you want to read about.

Cheers, Dave Brookfield, People Director, Euro Car Parts

AND THE WINNER IS...

Congratulations to Owen McDermott from IT in T1 who suggested the winning name, which is quite an accolade as this will remain for the foreseeable future of the magazine! We went to speak to Owen about the win and present him with his prize and he said;

As part of the launch of this new colleague magazine, we asked you to help us come up with a name for it. Thank you to everyone that took the time to enter – we had so many great ideas, some of you got very creative and it was really difficult to pick a name, here are a few of the other entries that made the short list: ECP Reflect Ignition

I chose ‘ECP Life’ as it reflects the variety of our business, and is about what it says. It’s awesome that my entry won, and I’m really looking forward to future editions.

Spoiler Alert Torque-about Torque Talk

One entry really stood out, and it was felt that this really encapsulated what’s going on across our family of brands and a great description of our internal activities – as you can see from the front cover we now have: ECP LIFE

ECP Family Tree As with any family, it’s always interesting to take a look at the family tree!

LKQ CORPORATION LKQ Corporation is a leading provider of alternative and specialty parts to repair and accessorise automobiles and other vehicles. LKQ has operations in North America, Europe and Taiwan. LKQ offers its customers a broad range of replacement systems, components, equipment and parts to repair and accessorize automobiles, trucks, and recreational and performance vehicles. Any Part. Any Repair. Any Where.

EURO CAR PARTS Euro Car Parts is the largest automotive aftermarket specialist in the UK, and was founded in 1978 by Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia, a refugee who fled Uganda’s Amin Regime for the UK with his family. At the age of 18 Sukhpal raised £5,000 with help from his father and the bank and set up a car parts shop in North London. His entrepreneurial flair, passion, high energy, resilience, tenacity and a “will to win” are all still intrinsic to the culture of the business.

TEAM PR REILLY Established in 1945, Team PR Reilly is Ireland’s largest distributor of motor parts and accessories to the Irish motor industry. In joining the ECP family in mid-2017, both the ECP and PRR brands can strengthen the relationship with customers to provide a better service to the motor parts industry in Ireland, not only with an expanded range but also with more branches.

ARLEIGH Arleigh stock the most comprehensive range of industry specific products in Europe. Spare parts from the leading appliance manufactures including, Morco, Widney, Thetford, Spinflo, Belling, New World, Worcester Bosch and many more. Electric and gas appliances, taps and plumbing equipment, static caravan steps, storage boxes, siting equipment and much more. Arleigh have also been trade suppliers to the Static Caravan industry for over 45 years, and deal exclusively with Static

caravan dealers, manufacturers, repairers, gas installers and holiday parks.

With the development of T2, we took the opportunity to look at our internal branding including what is the attitude of Euro Car Parts and what that actually means to our colleagues. Whatever It Takes

With the help of our brand partners, RAW, we realised what it is that we actually stand for and what it means and looks like for us in reality. RAW conducted a number of colleague interviews across our business, and the research told us that we have a ‘Whatever It Takes’ attitude no matter what part of the business we work in, whether it’s for internal or external customers. This attitude has been intrinsic at ECP, ever since our founder Sukhpal Singh started the business in 1978. Thanks to his passion, drive and strong work ethic, this attitude resonates even stronger every day.

NEVER GIVING UP While others may be fading around you, don’t give up, perseverance pays off. PUTTING THE CUSTOMER FIRST We always put the customer first, even if we have to bend the rules – nothing is impossible. NOT BEING CORPORATE We take responsibility and are not afraid to put our neck on the line, – make your mark, make it count.

As with any approach, it only works if there

IT’S ALL ABOUT PEOPLE We are greater than the sum of our parts. We know our people make us who we are. are pillars of truth behind it. The research highlighted that ‘ Whatever It Takes’ represents five core truths that exist at the heart of Euro Car Parts, and that truly tell our story:

BEING THE BEST Stay humble, behave like we’re a small company – every customer counts!

1

Over the next few months you’ll be seeing and hearing more about ‘Whatever It Takes’ and what it actually means to you, as we introduce it across the business. We know that you’re all doing most of these already without even realising it, and we want to ensure that we are all doing them every day in everything that you do.

Be inspired, and do ‘Whatever It Takes’

Reasons to be hapi, 1 2 3

Back in September, with the support of our provider hapi benefits, we relaunched ECP Rewards with a great new look and some great new benefits and savings too. Everything on the hub, you get just for being an ECP Colleague, and they are available for your family too! You could save on things like grabbing a coffee with a friend, your family’s weekly shop, going out for a bite to eat, treating yourself (or someone special), a weekend outing to entertain the kids (or to get away from them, which ever you need!), and even save on a family holiday whether you’re having a staycation or going further afield!

★ Details of your Core Benefits such as staff discount, Pensions and Death in Service ★ Access to a free Employee Assistance Programme to help you and your family deal with personal problems that affect your wellbeing ★ A range of health and wellbeing benefits including; health club membership, eye care,

dental care and debt consolidation ★ Salary sacrifice options including Childcare Vouchers

It’s free and easy to sign up, you just need your Payroll number – and even your partner can sign up too! Simply login to

There really is something for everyone, for something every day.

eurocarparts.hapibenefits.com , or scan the QR Code opposite on your smartphone, to find all of your employee benefits in one hapi place!

As well as saving you money, ECP Rewards can also provide access to a range of other benefits – including:

ECPeople, ECP Careers and more! WHO ARE THE ECP PEOPLE TEAM? The ECP People Team is made up of a NEW - INTERNAL JOB BOARD In January, the People Team will be

ECP CAREERS HAS GONE SOCIAL! From early December, the People Team launched their all new ECP Careers social media pages on Facebook and Twitter. These pages are an exciting step forward in the team’s recruitment strategy, as we look for different ways to attract top talent in a highly competitive market and industry. These pages are telling the story of all things People, with the aim of reaching out to internal colleagues and potential new colleagues. The People Team believe that the average age group of our colleagues (and potentials) are more likely to be on Twitter and Facebook, than LinkedIn – and a growing number of companies are creating these kind of pages, not only for job activity but also for brand and engagement awareness in an ever growing social media world – and we need to jump on the train! Please help us to build our Careers community by liking and following our new pages and by also sharing our posts.

Recruitment Team, HR Business Partners, ER Specialist, Learning & Development and Internal Communications. The biggest function is the Recruitment Team, and made up of 11 recruiters – 8 for the Branch network and LKQc, 2 for Head Office and Distribution, and 1 Specialist Recruiter responsible for senior level and Branch Management. Each of our amazing recruiters is responsible for all the recruitment, on-boarding, succession planning, inductions and the coordination of the People Dashboard for their relevant business areas.

updating their page on ECPedia to include an internal job board. As part of this new activity, the team will publish various roles as they become available, and before they are advertised externally. So if you’re looking for opportunities to progress internally, or want to consider a different career path – then we encourage you to keep an eye out for something that might interest you.

JOBS

Aston

Edinburgh

Keighley

Basingstoke

Rotherham

Kings Lynn

Basingstoke

Littlehampton

Wembley

Weymouth

Gravesend

Stoke

Basingstoke

Catford

Wokingham

Dundee

Castlereagh

Tamworth

LKQ Tamworth

Gary Jones

Crayford

On Friday 15 th December teams from branches, offices and warehouses donned their best knits (or at least something Christmassy!) to support Save The Children’s Christmas Jumper Day.

Aylesbury

Edmonton

Great to see so many of you getting involved – and the array of festive outfits. THANK YOU AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanet

Chester

Canterbury

Launceston

Folkestone

Burnley

Exeter

Basingstoke

Manchester

Stevenage

Maidstone

Barnstaple

Leeds

Rotherham

Guildford

Stockton

People Team

Lowestoft

Hastings

Orpington

Ashford

Tunbridge

Norwich

Eastbourne

Derry

Do you have a favourite colour? I have a couple, pink and yellow . 0-60 0- 0

In each edition of ECP Life, we’ll be profiling a different person from around the business with a 60 second interview to find out a bit more about them – put a face to name and all that. For the first one, it felt only right to

What was your first car, and what’s your dream car? First car was a mint green, old B reg, Ford Fiesta, 1.1 Popular Plus. For my dream car it would have to be a Koenigsegg CCXR… What’s your favourite holiday destination? It’s really hard to decide - it would be a choice between Mexico, Lanzarote and Turkey! What’s your favourite film? I’m a bit of a film buff, and it depends what mood I’m in and how I’m feeling! Who inspires you? Without doubt, it has to be my mum! She is so selfless and caring every day, she’ll do anything to help anyone. If you could have any magic power what would it be, and why? Teleporter – because there’s so many amazing places to go in the world, I don’t think I’ll get round them all in my lifetime! Who or what, did you last go and see live? Comedy genius, Greg Davies.

interview the editor of ECP Life, Lou Hiden .

Feedback is a gift! We want ECP Life to work for you, and as Dave mentioned in his Welcome message, if you’ve got any ideas about the things you want to us cover in future editions, as well as what you think about this first edition – we really want you to tell us! How long have you been at ECP? It’s been almost eight months, and what an eight months it’s been – I’m absolutely loving it! What does your job involve? Quite a lot! As Head of Internal Communications, I work across the whole company to provide a business partnering role, so guidance and best practice support for the way to communicate messages to colleagues. A key element of the role, for me is about engagement – both from a role perspective, but also in terms of providing guidance to others on employee engagement activities. What did you do before you joined ECP? I worked for a Chartered Surveyors, as a Marketing Communications Executive. Before that I also worked for a Housing Association, Argos and an insurance company. My career has pretty much revolved around internal communications, events, PR, Media Relations and employee engagement.

If there’s anyone you’d like to know more about then please tell us!

Whether you want to know more about a topic, have an idea on something that we can cover, want to tell us about a story – or even if you want to get involved, then please get in

touch and send an email to: internal.communications @eurocarparts.com