For the first couple of months
we traded from premises in Binfield, near Bracknell. However we soon moved lock, stock and
ignition coil to our present whereabouts in Downley, near High Wycombe.Tim was the only full time member of staff at Downley initially.
Deliveries were handled by the main business. Within a couple of months Martin joined us
(he had a motor spares background and stayed with us for about 6 years). Within a year
Peter transferred from the caravan hire business.
For the first couple of years we had a manual stock
control & invoicing system. This worked well and was accurate, but as both the
turnover and the stockholding grew it became obvious that a computer system was needed. We
had reached the stage where one person was almost full time on stock control, which out of
a staff of 3 was ludicrous. We looked around for a system, but in 1986 there was not the
choice that there is now.
We finally found the "EGO" system and duly
had installed 2 VDUs, 2 printers and a CPU running on two 5" floppy discs. We are
still with "EGO", but now with 6 standard VDUs, 3 Uniterms (each acts as 4
standard VDUs + 3 virtual printers) and 2 printers. We have just linked the
"EGO" to a PC and once we have sussed the intricacies of the link, it will allow
us much greater flexibility, more powerful accounts & management facilities and
internet access.
Dingocroft now employs 9 staff (see
Prancer’s People), runs 2 Maestro vans for regular deliveries plus our 110
Hicap Land Rover (the model for Prancer) as standby and special delivery
vehicle.
Stock has grown from just under 3,000 lines to in
excess of 10,000 lines.
The premises have been extended both
backwards and sideways to more than double our storage area and to provide a
much needed showroom (formerly an estate agent’s office).
12/01/03
Just to bring things a little more up to date. We now run MAM Autopart
software on a Windows Network spread over 7 PCs. The fleet is now one
Citreon Berlingo van, one Nissan Vanette and a Land Rover 130 Crewcab
with high capacity rear body. Stock has now reached the dizzy heights of
about 12,000 lines.
