NEWS

Heatstar Aftersales Efficiency Increases And Lead Times Decrease Heatstar is known for the excellence of its aftersales care – backed by their fleet of specialist service engineers which are based throughout the UK, they offer nationwide aftersales support for the company’s environmental control systems. 2019 saw Heatstar roll out its brand new field service management software. Named ‘call2field’, it provides the aftersales service department and their fleet of nationwide service engineers with access, via smart phones and tablet devices, to all the facilities of the new software, reducing both paperwork and response times. As a result, in most cases, Heatstar are now currently able to boast a 48 hour maximum call out lead time for when a call is received into head office to one of the company’s engineers visiting site. Heatstar always appreciate that customers will want to have their equipment back up and running again as quickly as possible in the event of a

breakdown and this reduced lead time helps the company provide a fast and responsive call out service reducing any inconvenience and downtime. Preventative measures will also always keep the equipment working correctly and to that end Heatstar offer a range of planned maintenance agreements. The agreements ensure that equipment is properly maintained and serviced by fully qualified Heatstar engineers with an in-depth knowledge and experience of the products. This in turn offers complete peace of mind to the end user and demonstrates the after sales service and support offered by the installer in conjunction with Heatstar. There is also a technical helpline available which can often resolve issues over the phone. Heatstar 01983 521465 www.heatstar.com

Restoration Of Newcastle’s City Baths Going Swimmingly The highly-anticipated reopening of one of NE1’s most-loved buildings is just around the corner. Work to transform Newcastle’s City Baths is nearing completion and the £7.5m restoration by charity Fusion Lifestyle will see the Grade II building revitalised to combine modern facilities – including a 25m swimming pool, health and fitness suite and a spa with treatment rooms. Specialist works are also ongoing to bring the building’s much-loved Turkish baths back to life – and Newcastle will soon be home to one of only a few still in operation in England. Throughout the redevelopment, Fusion has worked with a group of specialist companies including leisure, design and build expert Createability to sensitively restore as many of the building’s original features as possible, while introducing modern architectural structures. Those looking for a workout with a difference will have access to striking two storey glass-fronted studios, as well as an impressive health and fitness suite, complete with the latest gym and training equipment. The City Baths will also offer a jam-packed calendar of more than 130 exercise classes per week including Fusion’s bespoke HIIT and functional training classes, INTENCITY and popular Les Mills classes. The current building opened to the public in 1928, with the history of baths on this site dating back even further, to when famous Newcastle son, John Dobson, built private baths in 1838 at a cost of £9,500.

Leyton Aims To Recover Up To 33% Of R&D Costs On Bespoke Projects Businesses in the pool and spa sector carrying out bespoke, innovative and challenging work on a daily basis could be eligible for financial rewards from government schemes according to funding specialists Leyton. However, many companies are not taking advantage of what has the potential to be one of the most lucrative funding streams for the industry. “If a business is undertaking technical challenges in their projects, a significant proportion of their development costs can be reclaimed. The scope for qualifying companies should not be underestimated and many businesses are unaware that the work

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they do qualifies for the scheme,” explained Dr Peter Clark, Technical Consultant at Leyton. Additionally, if a company’s innovation can be attributed from one project and the same development is applied to other work, then it is also worth exploring the costs across the entirety of the work. Designed to reward financially innovative

businesses for carrying out technically challenging work, the Government is looking to inject an additional £2.8 billion into the R&D Tax Credit scheme over the next three years. Regardless of what happens with Brexit, businesses which successfully claim through the scheme can expect to recover between 25% and 33% of their R&D costs. In terms of the pool and spa construction market, no two projects are the same and the bespoke nature of the market aids a perfect fit for this scheme in particular. Leyton 020 3761 6333 www.leyton.com

www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk 03/12/2019 18:17