Hunts Motorcycles : Manchester's number one new and used bike dealer ...

Hunts MD John Brown says: “the growth of the business over the past few years has meant that we have become seriously short of space so when the opportunity arose to acquire the premises next door we moved quickly. Hunts Motorcycles has been established in the same position on Kingsway in Manchester over 50 years, so we didn’t want to move and this opportunity to expand the shop sideways will give us all the space we need.

The extension will provide a greatly increased ground floor showroom area, allowing us to display even more new Honda bikes, as well as additional space for used bikes. Also on the ground floor will be better customer reception and hospitality facilities, plus easier access for customer and service parking”.

On the first floor, the motorcycle parts, accessories and clothing departments will be doubled in size, allowing us to add to the already considerable range we keep in stock. Parts manager Dave Hodkinson explains: “We are already well known for holding one of the largest stocks of genuine Honda parts and accessories in the north west, but lack of floor space has prevented us from carrying as wide a selection of aftermarket parts, accessories and clothing as we would have liked. The new extension will double the size of our department and will provide our customers with even more choice”

Building work is due to start very soon, with the project expected to take around three months, seeing completion by the New Year. While the building work is in progress business will continue as normal, the work having been carefully planned to cause minimal disruption to the day-to-day running of the business.

Please keep an eye on this page for progress reports, plus news of some very special sales promotions leading up to the opening. We also have a surprise for classic Honda enthusiasts with the inclusion of a couple of very rare Honda classic bikes pencilled in to take pride of place in our new showroom. Watch this space!

Week 1: Monday 05 September work begins. By Friday afternoon, the current showroom is partitioned ready for work to begin on cutting the opening through to next door. Good progress has been made in getting the new premises cleared out and the project is well and truly on track.
Week 5: Work is still continuing on schedule with a great deal of progress having been made inside the building and a start having been made on the construction of the new secure area to the rear of the shop. Inside, much of the major structural remedial work has been completed and we are now starting to see just how much extra space this project will give us.
Week 10: The job is really progressing now with the front of the new showroom in place and the forecourt railings installed. The new sign arrived and has been put into place. Inside there is still plenty of work to do, but we are still well on schedule for an early January opening. The new service reception area is completed and operational and the major work is now concentrating on the installation of the new staircase and completing the extension to the parts, clothing and accessories department.
Week 15: Nearly there now! -The new staircase is in place (complete with our 'off road' display) and the showroom extension is now almost complete (we've already got some bikes in there!). Upstairs, the new administration offices are finished and our much extended parts and accessories department is fully operational whilst the finishing touches are being put in place. Not long now to our grand opening weekend on the 21/22 January.
Friday 20 January : It's done! - It's taken some seriously hard work and long hours on the finishing touches, but we're ready to go. We've added the 'flying' Honda Dream 50 to the stairwell ceiling and the display cases for our Honda RC30 and Fireblade display bikes are in place. New desks in the showroom and customer display screens are installed. Everything ready and in place for our grand opening weekend.

Source: Hunts Motorcycles, Manchester