The sun shone brightly on the 2009 May Fayre in Burghfield Village! Many exciting launches took place on that Sunday, from a Chinnook (yes a Chinnook landed and took off from Burghfield St Mary's School playing field!), to Spratley's new Autocare brand (for servicing, repairing and MOTing most makes of vehicle) to Spratley's sponsored charity balloon race!
What is Spratley's Autocare all about? Well Spratley's has been a Vauxhall franchise since 1963 (of which we're very proud) and now we want to tell the world that we also love to service, MOT and generally look after most other makes of vehicle (cars and light vans) as well. We're very pleased with our new Autocare branding; if you know us already and pass by our garage in Victoria Road, Mortimer, you'll notice some recent changes to our signage. We want to ensure that everyone in the area knows about and can benefit from the great competitively priced motoring services that we provide (not just Vauxhall owners). That isn't to say that we don't love and cherish our Vauxhalls anymore; of course we do!
Anyway, I digress, so going back to the Burghfield May Fayre, it was a lovely day and the event was very well organised. We turned up at 8am (quite a challenge on a Sunday morning!), set up our stand with our new Autocare 3 metre flags, and decorated a shiny black Vauxhall Corsa with a balloon arch! We chatted to lots of lovely people, entered them into our free Champagne Draw and sold tickets for our charity balloon race. Rachel Spratley (5th generation of the Spratley family working for the company) and Matt Allwood did a fantastic job helping us on the day as did Hellen Shaw of the Pink Tomato Marketing Company and her family.
The most amusing moment came when Hellen insisted that we take the inflated Spratley's Autocare helium balloons (which were being held down by a large net) into the main arena for the launch. It was all hands on deck! But we managed the task with only 1 or 2 balloons gaining a head start in the race by escaping before their fellow balloons.
I wonder who will be the winner of £100 cash prize for the most travelled balloon? We'll have to wait and see.
Julie Spratley
Director
