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Hammond Group Latest News

A massive thank you to all the following who contributed to our fundraising for the "Guide Dogs for the Blind Association"

Pearce & Kemp Limited
Members of Diss Rugby Club
Beccles & District Lions Club
Forum of Private Business
Camplings Limited
We Sell Tyres
Dingles Toyota (Norwich)
Norfolk Recovery Services
John Kemp Limited
Whincop of Peasenhall
Pretty Garage
Newmans Garage • Mitchells Garage Limited • R Ashton & Son Limited
Becks Garage Limited • Robinsons Motor Engineers • Greenfields Service Station
Town Garage Limited • K W Auto's • Jarvis Cars • Whiting's Garage Limited
JSF 4 x 4 Limited • Britcar (UK) Limited • Michael J Simpson
Walton Garage • Mill House Garage • Friarscroft Garage
J Eaton & Son • Foxhall Garage Limited • Paul Utting Commercials Limited
Mr M J & Mrs P Curtis • Jeffrey & Associates
Halesworth Golf Club Limited • Shadwell Estate Company Limited
Broadland Towbars Limited • Team Spirit Software Limited
Duff Morgan & Vermont Limited • David Copeman • J Spindler and Son's Limited
P J Spillings (Builders) Limited • TWP Designs Limited • East Bilney Coachworks
J B Read • Spectra Packaging Solutions Limited • P & D Crosby
Paperclip (East Anglia) Limited • Broadland Security Alarms
Up Country Auto Products Limited • Simon Hastings Vehicle Sales
Nicholsons Solicitors • East Fire UK Limited • Michael Armes Vehicle Body Repairs
Julian Tacon • D & G Exterior Cleaning • Orwell Trucks Limited
M & K Commercials Limited • Micropress Printers Limited
G Forces Web Management Limited • Window Film Centre Limited
Allglass (Anglia) Limited • M S Block Plumbing & Heating Service
Beamish Transport Limited • C H Lindsey & Son Limited

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On the 24^th of May, Hammonds will be doing a Tandem Skydive at Old Buckenham to support the "Guide Dog for the Blind Association".

26 intrepid members of staff will be diving out of an aeroplane at 2 miles above Norfolk, free fall for 1 mile at 120mph before the parachute deploys. 6 minutes later they glide safely to earth again.

This will be a fantastic event which had already been well supported by all staff and many of our contacts.

If you would like to attend or help with a donation or indeed have a go yourself contact Wendy on 01986 834700 or wendysictorness@hammondgroup.co.uk

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Sunday 18^th of April sees Hammond Land Rover sponsoring the Diss Rugby Football Club Under 13's Festival.

This will be the second year that this prestigious event has been run and sponsored by Hammonds. 16 Teams from all the local rugby clubs from around East Anglia will be competing for a magnificent trophy, £500 worth of kit for the club and their name added to the previous winners.

Diss Rugby Club whose home is "Mackenders" at Diss has a proud heritage which goes back to its foundations in 1958 and to this day continues to generate the sort of "club" atmosphere which is the envy of many other teams and clubs.

They have an unrivalled enthusiasm from the President down and with nearly 100 Vice-Presidents there is strength in depth.

The Hammond Group is extremely proud in it continued sponsorship of this great club.

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From today, all Defender 110 Station Wagons featuring the Utility Pack will gain a classification change from M1 passenger carrying to N1 Light Commercial Vehicle. With a payload capability in excess of 1,000kg, the Defender 110 Utility Wagon also meets requirements to be classified as a light goods vehicle for VAT purposes should the usage be commercial.

The Utility Pack, which is a no cost option available on all three trim levels - base, County and XS - replaces the rear side windows of the standard station wagon with panelled sides, providing a secure load space area whilst still maintaining seating for five people.

Customers purchasing a Defender 110 Utility Wagon for commercial requirements can benefit from VAT reclaim, Benefit in Kind tax capped at £3000 for light commercial vehicles and an LCV rate of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) - £185 from May 1, 2009.

John Edwards, UK managing director, Land Rover said: "The change in classification for the Defender 110 Utility wagon provides our business customers with a more flexible and cost-effective alternative to other double cabs. The Utility pack ensures a more secure load space whilst not affecting the vehicle's ability to transport five people comfortably - making it an ideal workhorse".

Prices for the Utility Wagon will start from £23,970.00 OTR (£20,874.78 exc. 15% VAT but including VED and £55 registration fee).

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Land Rover confirms grant offer to build new model

Gaydon, Warwickshire, 11 March 2009

The UK Government has confirmed a grant offer of up to £27 million is to be made available to Land Rover for the production of an all-new car. The company is due to make a final decision on the the go-ahead of the project at its award-winning plant in Halewood, on Merseyside, later this year.

The car would be based on Land Rover's acclaimed LRX Concept vehicle, first shown at the Detroit Show last year, and would be the smallest, lightest and most efficient it has ever produced.

"We welcome the Government's support for this project, which would form a key part of our future product plans and which we very much want to put into production," said Phil Popham, Managing Director of Land Rover.

The grant offer will be made available under the Government's Grant for Business Investment scheme and is an important contribution towards the overall £400 million cost of the project. This is separate from the broader automotive support package currently being unveiled by the Government.

Although it still has to go through a number of approval gateways in the product development process before getting the final go-ahead, Land Rover has also confirmed that the new car would be a key addition to the Range Rover family of luxury vehicles.

Phil Popham said, "Our engineering feasibility study has shown that we can very successfully deliver Range Rover levels of quality, drivability and breadth of performance in a more compact, more sustainable, package. Feedback from the most extensive customer research we have ever undertaken also fully supports our belief that a production version of the LRX Concept would further raise the desirability of our brand and absolutely meet all those expectations."

"It would be the smallest, lightest and most efficient Range Rover that we've ever built," Phil added. "The compact size, lighter weight and sustainability-focused technologies of the LRX Concept showed how Land Rover is planning to respond to the needs of a changing world. Despite the current economic challenges, we remain committed to investing for the future, to continue to deliver relevant vehicles for our customers, with the outstanding breadth of capability for which we are world-renowned."

The new Range Rover would embrace excellent levels of refinement and all-round capability and also introduce new powertrain options, providing a major step forward in enabling the implementation of Land Rover's e-terrain technologies strategy and achievement of its goal to exceed a 20 per cent improvement in CO₂ emissions.

"Both the design and size of the LRX Concept have generated a hugely positive reaction wherever it has been seen and we've also gathered fresh insights on what potential owners would look for in a production equivalent. That knowledge is now being applied to the process of refining the vehicle as it heads towards final approval," said Phil.

The Halewood facility employs 2000 people and is a recipient of the JD Power Gold Standard. It currently produces the Land Rover Freelander 2 and Jaguar X-TYPE.

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During last year we set up a team to raise money for "The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association".

So far we have over £2000 in the kitty.

We are now embarking on our most ambitious project which will be a sponsored Sky Dive.

This is a terrifically worthwhile cause and is vital in helping people who are less well off than most of us.

If you want to help with a donation please do not hesitate to contact us, ask for Wendy Sictorness, who will be able to help and answer all your questions.

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Aim Hi Award Winners 2008. JET announced the winners of its Aim Hi dealer programme, during a ceremony at the Welcombe Hotel, near Stratford upon Avon, on 27 January 2009. Ten regional winners competed and Halesworth's AW & D Hammond Limited walked away with the highest accolade, having come out on top of over 400 dealers across the country, after a rigorous assessment of commitment to health and safety standards, customer service and employee training. The announcement follows ConocoPhillips' ‘Highly Commended' accreditation in the oil company initiative category at the Forecourt Trader of the Year awards in 2008.

The Aim Hi awards recognise a JET dealer's commitment to offering a friendly and efficient service in the local community. It compares service stations from across the country in terms of their customer care and staff communication utilising feedback from the company's POS Check programme and is judged internally by a senior management team drawn from across the organisation.

Patrick Hudson, JET's marketing manager, retail, commented: 'JET is utterly dedicated to its dealers and giving them the support and infrastructure to help them deliver an unrivalled service in the local community'.

'What binds our winners - and all our dealers - together is that they are an intrinsic part of their community. We strive to deliver a friendly service and that is what separates us from the competition and makes our dealers successful in the current, challenging marketplace.'

A victorious Louise Hammond noted: 'It's a tremendous honour to be announced as the National winner of JET's Aim Hi programme. We believe, passionately, in the personal touch and attention to detail such as an attended pump service where required. Our overall aim is to provide a service to the local community be it a daily newspaper, fresh bread or a DVD and a bottle of wine for the evening, or of course a tank of competitively priced fuel. Competition locally is intense but with the support of the JET brand, we are able to deliver a market-leading service thanks to the commitment of our team here at Halesworth.'

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Jason Steward, our Land Rover Master Technician has won his way through to the final of "Technician of the Year". This competition run throughout the Land Rover network is a prestigious event which is open to over 1200 entrants and is an annual event testing knowledge, skill and nerve and consists of theory and practical exams. After three searching rounds Jason is now in the final six technicians in the UK.

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This year Hammonds are pleased to announce that they are once again sponsoring Diss Rugby Club. This is the seventh consecutive year that we have been a main sponsor. Last season Diss won promotion and moved up to Division 2 in the London North leagues and find themselves now competing at a very high level. Hammonds are extremely pleased with their association with the club whose members also support our business when it comes to their motoring needs. The club is extremely ambitious, with team strengthening always a priority. They also have a large youth section and pride themselves on bringing the youngsters through all age levels, the colts and eventually into the senior teams. At the same time as the teams are strengthened, the club facilities are also under review and to this end planning has been granted to redevelop the Clubhouse, changing rooms, kitchen etc.

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Hammonds are extremely aware of the impact of the motor car on our Environment.

At a local level we have an internal environmental group that has achieved many successes over the last 18 months in reducing our carbon footprint.

Actions taken include:

Purchase of a commercial baling machine to bale up all our plastic and cardboard generated by the business. This material is all sent to specialist recycling plants.
Separation of all our other waste material, tyres, oil, batteries, metal, paper are all sent for recycling.
Purchase of an electric vehicle to collect and carry all the above around the Town. This vehicle has absolutely ZERO emissions and batteries are charged overnight costing only 1.7p per night.
Our manufacturers are all working at a great pace to bring exhaust emissions down as quickly as possible. Land Rover have a unique Carbon Offset programme on all new vehicles. They also have a vast array of ongoing projects to help the Environment. Please click here to see the full story. Nissan, Daihatsu and Ford all have superb low exhaust emission cars with only £35.00 road fund taxes.
Ford's Dagenham plant is completely powered by three large wind turbines.
The whole Land Rover dealer network is carbon neutral.
Finally, after working with the Carbon Trust, we have just invested in energy saving controls in all our vehicle workshops with the target of reducing our gas consumption by 40%.

We are very excited as we look forward to the New Ford Fiesta coming to our business before the end of 2008. The all new Fiesta will make extensive use of ultra high strength steels on its body structure and every component has been scrutinised by European engineers for weight. The car was recently previewed at the Frankfurt Motor Show. When it goes on sale, expect the usual range of petrol and diesel engines. Plus an ECO-netic diesel offering very low CO2 emissions. There will also be a hot ST version, this time offering around 170bhp.

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New for 2008 is the opening of our Commercial Vehicle Workshop. We already have a well established trailer repair business called Roadcare operating in Dereham and we can now offer full services for all commercial vehicles. Chris Simpson, our vehicle workshop manager, has joined us to set up this new venture. Chris brings with him a wealth of experience having run the largest DAF workshop in Europe when he worked in the North of England. We will be offering all the Department of Transport servicing and vehicle inspections. Full mechanical repairs and MOT preparation are available. This workshop will maintain all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes. Our current Ford and Nissan workshops continues to work on all vehicles under 3.5 tonnes.

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This Autumn saw the introduction of the Subaru and Daihatsu brands to our business. This is an exceptionally exciting addition to our business and will operate from a brand new purpose build showroom on Norwich Road, Halesworth. Both brands are established in the UK and have an excellent reputation for reliability, innovation and value for money. Daihatsu is Japan's oldest car manufacturer and has just celebrated its 100^th Anniversary. With 5 year warranty, cars at £35.00 road fund and the Sirion which achieves 62mpg it has an impressive line up. Subaru continue to go from strength to strength with new models either here of coming to the range. The launch of the world's first Boxer diesel engine has been a definite success. This inherent design of the horizontally opposed engine ensures that it is supremely smooth revving, while the movement of the opposing pistons counteracts vibrations.

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