Allied show passion for Great Britain glory

Images courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

The Glasgow company remain loyal backers for the national set-up despite the season being severely disrupted through the Coronavirus crisis. The Facenna family have had to reorganise their hugely-successful vehicle manufacturing business to cope with the ‘new normal’. But while they have closed the doors on a Speedway season at the club they own Glasgow Tigers, they do hope the GB team can find some action this year. Facenna said: “We remain passionate about the Great Britain team, hopefully the Speedway of Nations can go ahead as planned later in the year.

“It was a very hard but necessary decision we had to make to opt out of this season for Glasgow, as our statement pointed out. But that hasn’t stopped our interest and backing of Great Britain. You’d like to think we have a good chance of success with the final being held in Manchester in late October. There’s a lot of good work going on with GB. They have launched the official GB Academy this year and I’m sure that will further enhance the quality of young riders coming through.

“It’s a great shame that our Global Challenge Series event between Great Britain and Rest of the World was unable to go ahead in April. But I’m sure that it will happen in the future with big meetings at Ashfield.

Allied has a turnover of around £160 million a year and a fraction under 700 staff – the vast majority of which are based at its manufacturing and administrative headquarters in Possilpark, Glasgow. The group produces some 7,000 vehicles each year, supplying around 45 per cent of the UK’s accessible vehicles, and encompasses divisions such as assistive living aids retailer Mobility Solutions and an automotive after-sales service.

Allied also holds partnerships with the likes of Peugeot and Vauxhall to provide accident repair services and UK-wide parts distribution, they have also recently launched home AutoCare. Facenna admits: “It’s been a very tough few months. We have remained in operation because we service emergency services vehicles, Police Scotland asked us to remain open. So we have provided a key worker service. Our main priority has been for all our staff during a very challenging period for every business. It’s also meant a huge re-organising of the offices to accommodate social distancing, protection screens for each desk, extra doorways, one-way systems, and so many more different procedures. The fact is that 80 per cent of our customers are in the vulnerable category from the virus, so we’ve had to adapt quickly for those customers to keep them on the road and crucially keep their independence.”