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Thank you to the Sponsors of the Yale Endurance Cars

March 18, 2013

The Yale/Armstrong Ford V8 and Holden V6 competed in the final round of the two race series of the New Zealand Championship Endurance Series and what another fantastic weekend. With 28 cars registered to start, this was the meetings largest grid.

Great to see so many ASSA ABLOY and Armstrong Security guests enjoying the weekend, along with Signwise, Otbury, TPS and some of the Exceed Team. It is great to have the support of you behind the team as it really adds to everyone’s enjoyment. By the end of the weekend, everyone at the track knew where the Yale/Armstrong team was based as we used the suite after the event for the endurance prize giving. Also with so many Yale and Armstrong tee shirts walking around the track facilities the branding on tee shirts and cars was quickly recognised and had extra mention in the commentary box when the cars were racing.
The Race
Saturdays qualifying went well with the endurance field being the largest field for the weekend. We had 25 cars out on the track as we had a few late entries from the BMW class who were racing over the weekend as well. The weekend began with 2 half hour test sessions on Friday. Some gearbox work had been done to the car between the meetings and a new refueller system fitted to make the refuelling faster. This is why we have test sessions as when we went out and changed to 3rd gear, here wasn’t one! In the pit and with the car up on jacks, it was discovered that the selector bolts were not done up, and after some tightening and adjusting we were back out there.
With improving times we were looking forward to the race. Unlucky for two teams who demolished their engines during testing, one was a Ford V8 race engine that would have been an eye watering bill!
On Friday night was the drivers briefing at the local Ssangyong dealer who put on a great BBQ spread for all the teams – thanks to Rick Cooper.
In qualifying, both Andrew and Shane qualified the car, as it was only a 20min session, and this put us in 8th for the start of the race. Outside and 4th row for turn one in amongst some impressive machinery. Matt in the V6 commodore was in 18th. He did not qualify that well after some set up changes done pre-race to the steering geometry, did not work as well as we had thought. It must have been 40 plus degrees in the cabin on the start line, so we all had to ensure we were hydrated. At 3.45pm we were off on a rolling start. David was the first driver this time and got a great start and was niggling with a Seat British touring car around turn two, four and five before he let the faster Seat through, and for the next hour was battling with a Lexus V8 RX7 and an Evo 9 with multiple place changes. This ended when David realised that the steering wheel was on an angle after using too much curb and slowed sufficiently to preserve the car (after all it’s a three hour race, not a sprint
After a good pit stop for Andrew to take over and 80 litres of fuel put in, Andrew was all about consistency, being mostly only a few 10th difference on each lap. With the one hour traffic gone it was focus on best lap times, and preserve the car. The next stop saw Shane in but this went a bit wrong after some seat belt issues making the stop longer than it should have been, but Shane then went on to post a fastest lap and brought the car home in 7th overall and 3rd in class.

So after six hours of racing we were 2nd overall and 1st in class. The Yale/Armstrong Holden Commodore V6 with 6th in the one hour and 2nd in class for the weekend, and was 2nd overall in his class. This was a great effort in his first Endurance. The only problem encountered was a loose suspension strut bolt which was quickly remedied by the crew, and got him back out with very little position lost.
FROM THE TEAM
We would like to thank all out sponsors in particular ASSA ABLOY and Armstrong for the fantastic sponsorship we have received for the endurance rounds this summer. Because of your help we have had fantastic results for both cars.
The look and image of having both cars is very professional and has an immediate impact with spectators, and they always come and have a look. Our hospitality suite was right above our pit so all our guests got to see all the action of our pit stop, and a few of the mistakes, and the forcible removal of David when he got stuck halfway out of the car, they just dragged him out and threw him on the ground!
OUR THANKS ALSO TO OUR CREW
The team need a pit crew of six people of which two are dedicated refuellers so a big thank you to Paul and Trev who we borrowed from the Holden Haven team, who are running the Holden
Haven NZV8 at the same meeting.
Thanks for their support with the re fuelling of the V8.
Bernard from Wenzlick Automotive for the servicing and checks at each stop and continual care of the car.
Andrew from Tauranga as support mechanic.
Glenda for your help at hospitality in Taupo
The team
David, Andrew, Shane and matt (drivers)
Bernard, Trev, Paul & Andrew
Karen & Suzanne

OVERALL SERIES WINNERS
Congratulations to…

• 1st Simon Ellingham and Jono Lester in the Porsche Fastway GT3 150
• 2nd David Dovey, Andrew Bowler and Shane Wenzlick in the Yale/Armstrong Ford Falcon
• 3rd Brent Melhop and Martin Hunt in the BMW mini cooper S

THE SERIES BY CLASS WINNING RESULTS:
WE WON!

• The V8 – Class 3, 3501cc and over in the three hour 1st in class
• The V6 – Class 7, 3501cc and over in the one hour 2nd in class

Yale/Armstrong Endurance Race Manfield 2013

February 13, 2013

The Yale/Armstrong Ford V8 and Holden V6 competed in the first of a two series round of the New Zealand Championship Endurance Series and what a fantastic weekend it was…
The weather was very warm with 31/33 degrees at the track, this means that the drivers were in about 40/43 degrees within the car, wearing two layer fireproof suits, balaclavas and helmets. On an average the drivers lose about 4kgs of water over an hour while they are racing. So as you can imagine they were dripping when they got out of their cars.

Results V8

The results from the weekend were fantastic with the Ford V8 team of Andrew Bowler, Shane Wenzlick and David Dovey achieving 3rd overall in the three hour race and 1st in class for the weekend.

Drama on the track

The V8 handled very well until the last 12 minutes when the linkage in the gear box broke which meant driving in only 1st and 2nd gear. This was a very long 12 mins, but as the car was 13 laps ahead of the next car we were still able to come in 11 laps ahead. While David was travelling around in second gear he had to go off the race line on the track this meant that he was driving in the rubber marbels that get flicked off the cars, as they are racing. Unfortunately he had so much of the rubber off the track stuck to the tyres it was rubbing against the inner suspension and it sounded like the wheel bearing had gone. This would have been tragic – in order to win an endurance race you must finish. Fortunately we went on to finish, albeit slowly! During the second refuelling and driver change the fuel tank breather overflowed and started siphoning fuel all over the ground. Quick thinking by the crew saw the removal of the breather and a bolt inserted into the pipe – we will use a different breathing system next time!

Results V6

Yale/Armstrong Holden Commodore V6 with Matt Dovey at the wheel achieved 7th in the one hour race and 2nd in the class for the weekend. This was the longest Matt had ever been racing and his first comment when he got out was “that was the slowest and fastest hour I have ever enjoyed”.His race went very well with no problems. On the one hour mark they have a compulsory pit stop when the driver has to get out of the car, run around it then hop back in. When strapped back Matt was asking what smelt?, the answer was “everything” as the tyres, brakes etc were all really hot.

Thanks

Special thanks to our crew. The team need a pit crew of six people of which two are dedicated refuellers, so a big thank you to Paul and Trev who we borrowed from the Holden Haven team who were running the Holden Haven NZV8 at the same meeting. Thanks for their support with the re-fuelling of the V8. We would also like to thank Bernard from Wenzlick Automation for the servicing and checks at each stop and continual care of the car.And of course Andrew from Tauranga as support mechanic and his son Daniel.
During the weekend I became the series coordinator for the endurance rounds which was a bit of a learning curve for me. It involves ensuring that the competitors are happy, articles are followed, liaising between the track officials/competitors and organising the prize giving.

Prizegivings

At the Taupo meeting we will be holding a prize giving for the Manfeild round on the Friday night at Taupo’s SSangyong Dealership. Both of our cars wil be recipients. On the Saturday evening we will have the Taupo prize giving and the series prize giving at the track after the race

Supporters

It’s great to have supporters down with us watching the driver changes, if you are at the track next time please do make your way down to the pits and have a look

Next round

Our next round is in Taupo on the 9th March. We look forward to meeting you all, so please do not hesitate to come over and introduce yourself and have a chat with anyone in the team and a sit in the car. The team will be wearing the Yale shirts/caps at the track and have a sit in the car.

Cheers, Karen Dovey

Pop into the Exceed Facebook page to view photos, just serach “exceed then the channel, eg maintenance or painting or furnishing or outdoor

Yale/Armstrong Endurance Race Manfield 2013

The Yale/Armstrong Ford V8 and Holden V6 competed in the first of a two series round of the New Zealand Championship Endurance Series and what a fantastic weekend it was…
The weather was very warm with 31/33 degrees at the track, this means that the drivers were in about 40/43 degrees withinthe car, wearing two layer fireproof suits, balaclavas and helmets. On an average thedrivers lose about 4kgs of water over an hour while they are racing. So as you can imagine they were dripping when they got out of their cars.

Results V8

The results from the weekend were fantastic with the Ford V8 team of Andrew Bowler, Shane Wenzlick and David Dovey achieving 3rd overall in the three hour race and 1st in class for the weekend.

Drama on the track

The V8 handled very well until the last 12 minutes when the linkage in the gear box broke which meant driving in only 1st and 2nd gear. This was a very long 12 mins, but as the car was 13 laps ahead of the next car we were still able to come in 11 laps ahead. While David was travelling around in second gear he had to go off the race line on the track this meant that he was driving in the rubber marbels that get flicked off the cars, as they are racing. Unfortunately he had so much of the rubber off the track stuck to the tyres it was rubbing against the inner suspension and it sounded like the wheel bearing had gone. This would have been tragic – in order to win an endurance race you must finish. Fortunately we went on to finish, albeit slowly!   During the second refuelling and driver change the fuel tank breather overflowed and started siphoning fuel all over the ground. Quick thinking by the crew saw the removal of the breather and a bolt inserted into the pipe – we will use a different breathing system next time!

Results V6

Yale/Armstrong Holden Commodore V6 with Matt Dovey at the wheel achieved 7th in the one hour race and 2nd in the class for the weekend. This was the longest Matt had ever been racing and his first comment when he got out was  “that was the slowest and fastest hour I have ever enjoyed”.His race went very well with no problems. On the one hour mark they have a compulsory pit stop when the driver has to get out of the car, run around it then hop back in. When strapped back Matt was asking what smelt?, the answer was “everything” as the tyres, brakes etc were all really hot.

Thanks

Special thanks to our crew. The team need a pit crew of six people of which two are dedicated refuellers, so a big thank you to Paul and Trev who we borrowed from the Holden Haven team who were running the Holden Haven NZV8 at the same meeting. Thanks for their support with the re-fuelling of the V8.   We would also like to thank Bernard from Wenzlick Automation for the servicing and checks at each stop and continual care of the car.And of course Andrew from Tauranga as support mechanic and his son Daniel.
During the weekend I became the series coordinator for the endurance rounds which was a bit of a learning curve for me. It involves ensuring that the competitors are happy, articles are followed, liaising between the track officials/competitors and organising the prize giving.

Prizegivings

At the Taupo meeting we will be holding a prize giving for the Manfeild round on the Friday night at Taupo’s SSangyong Dealership. Both of our cars wil be recipients. On the Saturday evening we will have the Taupo prize giving and the series prize giving at the track after the race

Supporters

It’s great to have supporters down with us watching the driver changes, if you are at the track next time please do make your way down to the pits and have a look

Next round

Our next round is in Taupo on the 9th March. We look forward to meeting you all, so please do not hesitate to come over and introduce yourself and have a chat with anyone in the team and a sit in the car. The team will be wearing the Yale shirts/caps at the track and have a sit in the car.

Cheers, Karen Dovey

Pop into the Exceed Facebook page to view photos

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/exceedmaintenance

http://www.facebook.com/ExceedHomePainting

http://www.facebook.com/ExceedHomePainting#!/ExceedHomeOutdoor

http://www.facebook.com/ExceedHomePainting#!/ExceedHomeWindow?fref=ts

Exceed is Growing

January 22, 2013

Exceed has identified a growing need from our customers and we have found a way to help. Our customers are all busy people who like a nice home, but to achieve this they find they have to make multiple calls to find a mobile solution to their home maintenance needs.

Exceed can now offer our customers a ‘one call’ solutions to home maintenance and improvement.

Exceed will continue to provide to our customers all our core values that have identerfied to our customers, and to the industry, exceptional customer service through the understanding of what our customers need.

EXCEED HOME

As a group Exceed channels will contine to promise;

“To provide you with exceptional products and services for your home, in such a way, that we exceed your expectations.”

Exceed Home Maintenance - We fix windows & Doors

Exceed Home Maintenance are specialists in repairing and upgrading window, door and conservatory joinery and security locks. Vans are fully kitted so that most jobs can be completed on the spot.
Exceed Maintenance Promise

“If we can’t repair or upgrade your window, door, conservatory or locks, we’ll help you to find someone who can.”

Exceed Home Window Furnishings - We sell blinds, shutters & curtains.

Exceed Home Window Furnishings provides fabulous range of window treatments that can transform a home into a retreat. All products are guaranteed, installed at no additional charge and are amongst the best products on the market irrespective. There’s a window furnishing solution to meet all budgets, needs and décor.

Exceed Home Furnishing Promise

“To add comfort, warmth, shade, privacy, value and style to your windows and doors by ‘dressing’ them in a way that will impress you, your family and friends”

Exceed Home Painting & Decorating - We paint & Decorate Homes

Exceed Home Paining & Decorating provide a unique turn-key, hassle-free solution to painting and decorating. We help you plan your décor with our colour consultants, pack away your treasures for safe keeping, protect your home and provide you with a perfect master painter finish.

Exceed Home Painting Promise

“When we’ve finished our work, we hope you’ll feel that your home has been cherished with perfect finishes, attention to detail and that we exceeded your expectations from the moment we first met you to the moment we left”

Exceed Home Outdoor Solutions - We create instant outdoor spaces.

Exceed Home Outdoor Solutions brings you clever fencing, instant hedging which look’s like it’s been in existence for a lifetime, and outdoor furniture and accessories to compliment any outdoor scheme.

Imagine ordering an outdoor makeover and only days later be sitting in your newly created outdoor room enjoying a summer evening with friends while your pizza cooks away in your brand new outdoor pizza oven!.

Exceed Home Outdoor Solutions Promise

“To create instant outdoor spaces that will add value to your home, and provide opportunity for fun, family, friends, relaxation and the creation of wonderful memories.”

Our new website showing all our services and products along with the Exceed shop will be up and running in December 2012.

We look forward to continuing to work with our customers to help make their life easier so they can enjoy their home environment.

Yale Racing Round Report

October 26, 2012

Round report
Taupo Motorsport park 19,20,21 October

Hi to my valued sponsors.

Thanks for your support. This is my first season in the Yale Super Six Holden and I am pumped to be campaigning the series. The car is all fresh and looks fantastic in its new livery and had some really good commentary during the racing.

Round one Taupo motorsport Park labour weekend

Just goes to show Taupo can change in a second. The weekend weather report was overcast for Friday and Saturday with patches of rain, and Sunday was to be really wet. Friday testing session went well and for my first attempt in the Yale Super Six I did well and managed to get times comparable to the other more experienced drivers. This gave me confidence for the up and coming weekend. The new tyres where very bad in the wet weather on Saturday as everyone found it hard to gain grip but soldiered on.

Saturday
For qualifying the class only get 10mins and with constant overcast and threats of rain it was challenging to get a good run. Tyre pressure was set for an early run and a fast one, and I managed to get a 6th place in my 2nd lap which worked well but put me on the outside of the track in the first race.

Race 1
Scratch race so the fastest qualifier to the front, this put me on row three on the outside. This was always going to be hard as it is my first time ever racing in class racing and my first in Super Six class. I got off the line well but at turn one with so many cars it was a problem to hold and get into the ‘train’. The tyres came on later in the race and I passed two cars to move me back up the field to 8th

Sunday
Race 2
Sunday came around and was damp but no rain yet but we all knew it was coming. Race 2 is a reverse grid with the slower cars given a 5 sec head start. I started off third on the inside in the first group so got a five second head start which I used to great advantage. I got up the inside of the Ford of Stratton and pulled away but 1st and 2nd eluded me until the last lap when I caught Bruce Kennedy at the end of the main straight and did an extremely late dive into the last turn. The turn was busy enough with three HQs and five super 6s all dicing for the same spot with much pushing and shoving. I came out ahead thought and took 2nd in my very first Super Six meeting. Fantastic

Race 3
Was an eventful one with the rain coming in, and then waves appearing on the track!
I started off slow and got bogged down at the start but with no grip the car I ended up spearing off everywhere. After a couple of quite major spins I was near the back of the field, but not last!

Conditions were extreme by this point with no grip I was barely using the accelerator as the wheels just spun up. In lap four I was not really making progress, with huge amounts of water on the track I was coming down the main straight when the car started to aquaplane in the braking area. I went straight off the end of the track and into the wall at the end of the main straight at about 80kph. The car was extensively damaged but apart from some soreness caused by the harness I came out basically unscathed. Just shows the importance of good quality safety equipment, including the head restraint system.

The next round was going to be at Pukekohe but because of the refurbishment of the track for the V8 supercars, we are going to be at Manfeild.

I have lots of work to do stitching on a new front but will be all ready to go by 1st of December in Manfeild

Manfield is a huge weekend and I have lots to prove.

Matt Dovey #82

Day Light Savings Time

September 28, 2012

Daylight Saving begins again on Sunday 30 September 2012 (clocks go forward one hour)
This weekend is a good time to do your twice year check of your windows summers coming hopefully !!! . Open & close all your windows – all the way out & make sure they are working OK, if stiff use the Exceed window and door lubricant, do not use CRC.

Also if you haven’t used your Bi folds or French doors over much during the wet winter months check them also and lube any moving parts/joints

Receive 45% off the price of a can of Exceed Lubricant if you mention this News ad by calling 0800 25 25 00

A Business with a Practical Challenge in the Hutt Valley

September 18, 2012

“Going into business can be scary, but the great thing about franchising is the resources you buy. Exceed has been the winner of several national Franchise Awards due to it’s on-going successful business model. In fact in the last 12 months, Exceed’s business has grown against home service sector trends by 26%, an amazing result in a recessionary market” Said David Dovey, General Manger Exceed Maintenance.

Exceed Maintenance started in Wellington in 1990 when David Dovey realised that aluminium joinery manufactures could not offer an effective after-sales maintenance service. With thousands of home and commercial premises having aluminium fittings that needed repairs, he saw the opportunity to develop a franchise business to meet this need. Today there is so much work that many of the 25 franchise owners are splitting their territories and creating whole new opportunities. “It’s a measure of our success that demand is so high, and of course the opportunity to split or on-sell territories provides a nice capital gain for franchise owners too” says Ron White, franchise manager.

“The key to success for Exceed Franchise Owners is being practical, having a passion for the business and helping people, plus being able to communicate with a huge variety of people” says Robert from Auckland. “It’s not complex, you just have to be pleasant and be willing to go the extra mile” says Robert, Mission Bay Franchise Owner.

Are you ready to be part of this challenge?

Exceed Maintenance is looking for you, give Ron a call on

0800 25 27 36

Internal Promotion

August 17, 2012

Exceed on social media

August 6, 2012

Congratulations to everyone who is promoting feedback onto the exceed face book page. We have had customers now feed directly to the page with the benefit of this being that they are always on the page and their whole customer list gets to hear about exceed. When looking at all the social mediums we confirmed that Facebook was the target for exceed and tacked onto that was twitter and word press.

Our presence on the www is still ranking higher than all our competitors, suppliers and referrers… well done.

Our market share from within our industry market sits at 53%. We had 55 new business likes to our page in the last month.

We aim to grow this to 65%. We track out market share monthly and compare our ability with others in our market via Google analytics, converting of traffic and content.

Please ask every customer if they would like to see our face book page. Let them know we only post once a week so will not be overloaded with Exceed.

Social media marketing along with TV and our BHAG – labels will continue to see us at the top of our market and we will get that 65% of the market by 2017.

Anyone can post to the business Facebook page so give it a go as we like both the good and the bad comments. Why, because we do monitor our social media and we can respond quickly to the customer needs.

Facebook is all about developing a rapport with a group of people that you have or have had contact with. The word “friends” is a bit misleading as it is more of a recommendation or on-line “word of mouth” so the more it is used the more people hear about you and the company. And most of the time it is not the nuts and bolts of a business Face book is all about putting a ‘face’ to the name.

When you are posting there is a policy that you need follow, please see the next page.

social media policy

We welcome your participation as a means of sharing your own experiences, suggesting improvements and chiming in on the conversation. To keep our Group focused, we have set some guidelines

1. This Group is moderated and whilst comments are not reviewed by us before being posted, they will be removed and the user may be excluded if they breach these guidelines.

2. To ensure exchanges that are productive, informative, respectful of diverse viewpoints and lawful, do NOT post comments that are or include:

• Off Topic. We will exclude comments not related to the subject of the conversation.
• Spam. Comments focused on selling a product or service, or comments posted for a purpose of driving traffic to a particular website for personal, political, or monetary gain, will be excluded.
• Personal Attacks. If you disagree with the content, we’d like to hear from you, but ask that you refrain from personal attacks or being disrespectful of others. Malicious intent and or participation not in the spirit of civil conversation will be excluded.
• Illegal. Laws that govern use of copyrights, trade secrets, etc., will be followed.
• Offensive Language. Comments including but not limited to, profane or provocative language will be excluded (which means that hateful, racially or ethnically offensive or derogatory content, threats, obscene or sexually explicit language will not be tolerated).
• Private or Confidential Information. Do not post any private or confidential information about yourself or your company

3. Unless made by an authorised representative of the Exceed franchise group (or by a subject matter expert responding on behalf of that authorised representative),EXCEED does not endorse any comments posted to the group and all statements and viewpoints expressed in the comments are strictly those of the commenter alone, and do not constitute an official position of EXCEED

4. EXCEED reserves the right to change these guidelines at any time at its sole discretion.

July Newsletter

What’s in a title?

The name we give to things can shape how people perceive them, the same goes for a title at work.  As smart, savvy, business professionals, this is not a new concept to you. You know this principle works for a business’ name, sales promotions and events. It is the key reason from inception that Exceed has always given the title of “Franchise Owner” rather than “Franchisee”.

David was looking for people who were more than ‘employees’ and he felt strongly that the name franchisee gave a perception of being an employee.There is arguments both ways on the terminology from both a legal perspective – franchisee is the legal term and is the same as ” mortgagor and mortgagee” and that by using the word “owner” we could provide a false perception of what the role of a “owner” is.

At Exceed we want you to follow the system. Why – because it has proven to be successful. Why is it successful, because you have input and ownership of the Exceed system. Things like our core values, our key point of difference, were and will continue to be developed by you.

We do not wish to sell the Exceed business but rather, assist you to succeed. It is for this reason that you are called franchise owners. You have ownership in the success and on-going development of Exceed.

To add a lighter note I decided to give myself a title as I have never really had one before, so “editor” it is for this month. As you all know, Ron is away until the 13^th August so the job of creating the newsletter has fallen to me.

First problem was trying to open the template. Not happening on my computer as I cannot work on any-one else’s key board so you have a different lay out. Second was technical. No more to be said on this, my personality is to bring you fun, information and colour which means for this month, a new layout. Enjoy the read!

happenings from the conference

Adelaide brought up a lot of actions for both franchise owners and management team, how is it all going?

For franchise owners one of the key actions to set was to write down your goals on the one page business plan and get it back to us. Why? “If you write it down it will be done”- someone famous wrote that. By sending in your one page plan (and this could be for a six month period or for the year), it gives Ron information to talk over with you, gives Cass something to monitor if financial and part of the EBS and finally gives you and key stakeholders (partner) something to focus on and monitor. Exceed’s KPIs have been designed to be measurable “what you can measure you can manage” saying by David Dovey

For management we have

1. Sent out the first of the monthly box of labels. I know you all agreed on two boxes per month per van but feel we will start slow and get habits formed so one box per month per van. This challenge came about because of our BHAG – a window label in every home in NZ and we can only achieve this is labelling our work.
2. Marketing, working with Grab one and Treatme to set up a trial of these deals before we decide whether a roll out is warranted.
3. Working on the partners involvement and working with a few of you on ideas for a road show.

I understand no one has taken up a new profession as a wine maker… and tasting some of the mixes I am pleased they have not.

new team member

We have a new team member joining us on the 6^th August – Michelle Marshall. Michelle has worked with Exceed now for eight or more years as our print supplier, so she knows you all well!

Michelle has been involved with franhcising through printing.com as the manager for the retail store in Tauranga. Her enthusiasm for franchising is one of the reasons she has joined the team. Michelle and partner Glen will be heading up Exceed Painting.

As you can see the exceed team is prepared to go anywhere, just look at Phil Clarke’s new mode of transport in Tauranga.