In 1977 Volkswagen sent out the rules for a competition designed to further increase the professionalism of its After Sales dealer staff and it was called the No.1 Campaign. This competition was team based and each dealer team was made up from a representative from Service Reception, Parts and the Workshop.

We had Robin Marett to represent Service Reception, Viv Benest for Parts and Robert Kendall for the Workshop. Because each of them had many years of experience in their respective rolls we thought we might have a chance to do quite well.

Our managing director Hugh Ruding-Bryan, newly appointed only a year before, was also very supportive and keen for us to take part as he wanted to enhance the reputation of Walton Lodge and had his eye on the large cash prize for the national winner!

We won our local competition and faced very stiff opposition to win the Southern Regional Final which led us through to a place in the No. 1 Campaign national final which was held in April 1978 at a hotel at Heathrow.

We were naturally all getting a little excited and HRB took the three team members up to Harrods to buy them white blazers and matching shirts and ties. A lot of our staff were there as our supporters, they were certainly very vocal! The evening itself went very well; it must have done as we won, but it is a job to remember much of it now.

The cheques from Volkswagen were gratefully accepted and our A4 sized framed red No. 1 trophies, one as a local winner, one as a regional winner and the other as national winner were put up in the showroom for all to see.

During early 1978 whilst all this was going on Volkswagen had asked us to hand a short questionnaire on a postcard, addressed back to Volkswagen, to each of our customers for them to complete. The questions were to rate the customer visit and quality of advice and work carried out. Our staff made a real effort and our customer facing staff went above and beyond in persuading our customers to complete and post the questionnaires back to Volkswagen.

Volkswagen used some sort of formula and analysed these replies together with customer complaints from each dealer and how well each dealer had performed in the No. 1 campaign.

What a surprise for us, we came out on top as National winners of the prestigious Dealer of The Year Award 1978. This was first out of 350 dealers as there were then, although now there are only about 200. We received another cheque and management representatives were sent to Stockholm to be presented with their A4 sized trophy (went missing after the closure in 1990) of a blue map of the UK.

This win at national level was solely due to the excellent teamwork from all the staff, not just Sales, Service, Workshop and Parts but accounts, secretarial, drivers, car park attendants, DIY staff and cleaners and car cleaners. It was everyone pulling together.

It was a feather in our cap and a win for us all and it was amazing to see so many of them attend our reunion some 32 years later in 2010!!!