SPEEDYREG
What is it like to be the man behind the numbers?
Northern Ireland’ s drivers love personalised number plates. But just who provides them, and how easy or difficult is it to find the number plate you want? Business First talked with Dessie Elton, owner of Fermanagh-based SpeedyReg to find more about this fascinating business.
1
Can you tell us about SpeedyReg and the history of the company? Back in 1984, I spotted a gap in the number plate market, having just written off my Austin Allegro and subsequently selling the number plate for £ 75.... DIB 776. I thought it was quite a niche market to get into and founded Speedy Registrations.
Back in the early 80’ s I started from a garden shed in Snowhill, Lisbellaw. While this may be a humble beginning, it did have good provenance, having been the home of the Eadie family who had the first registered car in County Fermanagh and so were allocated the plate IL 1.
We ' d love to have that one on our books today! These days the shed, pleasant as it was, would be a bit cramped for all the staff and our 6000 motorcycles, so we now have purpose built premises at Millwood, Lisbellaw.
How has the personalised number plate market changed?
2When I started out computers where in their infancy and very expensive. The purchase of our first computer was a major event for Speedy, as we started to move over from a manual system, Websites followed and we have moved from full page adverts in The Auto Trader Magazines and Exchange & Mart Magazine both of which have long since departed our News shelves to Pay Per Click online adverts with google, along with Social Media through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. We have noticed a change in how our customers pay for registrations, they have moved from cheques to nearly all online payments and 0 % Finance.
The Business made a dramatic change in 1989 when the DVLA realised the potential and got involved in selling registration numbers. So I have embraced both the Internet and the DVLA Auctions and look upon them as challenges that have helped us grow as a business. Speedyreg has become the market leader in number plates in Northern Ireland..
What is the average cost of a personalised number plate?
3We sell number plates from £ 40 for the Northern Irish cover numbers, up to £ 100,000’ s for single letter, single digit number plates.
36 www. businessfirstonline. co. uk
What is the most expensive number plate you have sold?
4Most recently we had a lot of interest in O 11 and 11 O number plates, which we were retailing at £ 95K each, and a London City gentleman made me an offer I couldn’ t refuse, and now they are proudly displayed on a Rolls Royce and a MercedesBenz AMG. We believed this pair were the most perfect palindromic numbers plates to be sold on the UK market for a long time. The O 11 was originally a 1904 Birmingham number.
Whats the most popular number plate people request?
5Name plates are always very attractive, but we find the cheap irish plates sell like hot cakes, currently MRZ’ s would be at the top of the list.
Whats the most obscure number plate someone has requested?
6The other day we sold, ORG 451M to a gentleman for his wife, unfortunately his wife wasn’ t too impressed!!
Whats the difference in a dateless plate v ' s a prefix plate?
7Dateless number plates were issued up until 1963, it started off single number single letter progressing to three letters to three numbers. Which developed to suffix style plates, then onto prefix styled Swansea issued plates. But of course we have been blessed in Northern Ireland as all our plates are classed as dateless. We have had many popular name plates over the years from the Fermanagh, GIL’ s JIL’ s, HIL’ s to the Belfast KAZ’ s BAZ’ s GAZ’ s
Is it an easy process to update your number plate?
8Things have changed dramatically in the past year with online assignments. You can phone up Speedy and pay for your registration and have it assigned to your vehicle while you wait on the phone in a matter of minutes. How do you think Brexit will impact your business?
9I think it will have a positive effect because we will have more control over our destiny. i. e. we will not have to abide future European Legislative changes that will impact on our Business.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
10What spare time, I’ m always here.. When I’ m not in the office, I enjoy running, I find it is a great way to unwind. These days approaching 60, its just the local 10k Races, apart from organising the Spooktacular night time road race, around the streets of Enniskillen at Halloween. I also enjoy looking after my vegetables and apple orchards. In the winter evenings I play in the local Fermanagh Table Tennis League.