The faithful van that inspired a business idea for DA Techs retires, marking the continued success of the Adlington business over the last seven years.
The van that originally inspired the business idea of two local friends, and led to the start of an Adlington-based business that now has 55 staff and refurbishes more than 55,000 alloy wheels a year, is retiring after seven years of faithful service.
Phillip Barnard & Jamie Baxter. Image: DA Techs
Headed by Business Development Director Jamie Baxter and Operations Director Phillip Barnard, DA Techs is going from strength to strength. The original idea of a mobile alloy repair van has more than proved its worth.
Jamie was working as a sales manager at BMW Bolton when he spotted the potential to install a lightweight specialist wheel repair CNC lathe in a van and offer a mobile diamond alloy repair service to car dealers – drawing on his experience in the sector.
It took months of planning to work out how to configure the Mercedes Sprinter van with everything that was needed – not just the diamond cutting lathe, but spray booth, heat lamps, extraction and its own power – but by February 2017 the UK’s first mobile diamond cut alloy wheel repair facility hit the road.
From that seed of a business idea, DA Techs now has 5 vans and 4 specialist wheel repair pods in operation, along with the expanded premises at Adlington South Business Park and has over 60 partnerships with respected car dealerships including Williams Group, Cox Automotive and Fords of Winsford.
The original van that is now being retired has done over £1 million pounds worth of wheel refurbishments, having cut over 2,500 wheels a year over the seven years resulting in 20,000 wheels.
DA Techs also have an exclusive European partnership with US firm Micro Lenco, which sees the team regularly go out to Florida in the US working with the team to suggest lathe modifications, and are the UK and European distributor for the lathes which they then build into the vans.
Image: DA Techs
Saying goodbye to the original van which started it all is a milestone moment says Jamie. “I never thought that in just seven years me and Phil would be heading to America twice a year, or have as many staff as we do now.
“It’s not all been plain sailing – getting through COVID was a challenge but we’ve come out the other side and there’s plenty more ideas in the pipeline. It just shows that if you have a good business idea and determination you really can make things happen.
“We are very excited for the future plans for our business. The sky’s the limit regarding building the lathes into vans.”
Within the first year of operation alone, the ‘Diamond Smart’ van service repaired more than 2,500 diamond alloy wheels. In the seven years that have passed the original van has served DA Techs well, working with dealers, car supermarkets, bodyshops and independent garages across the North West.
DA Techs now oversee 220+ wheels being refurbished each day, both through its mobile vans which go to car dealerships and the specialist wheel repair pods. This provides huge time savings for customers, particularly car dealers whose optimum time to sell a used car is 35 days, with the lathe saving an extra two days turnaround time.
Phil Barnard, Director of DA Techs, says: “We’re so proud of the growth we’ve seen with the business, this van is where everything started so we will be sad to see it go. But this also marks how well DA Techs has grown and we look forward to seeing how much we’ll continue to thrive with our upcoming work.”
