Bailey of Bristol appoint Claire Woods as their new PRIMA and Aftercare Director

Bailey of Bristol is pleased to announce that Claire Woods has joined its Board of Directors as their new PRIMA and Aftercare Director.

Claire joined the company in 2018 as a Finance Business Partner to Bailey’s parts and accessories business, PRIMA Leisure. As operations grew she was asked to assume leadership of the team at PRIMA and as result of their collective efforts this fledgling stand-alone business recorded its first annual profit in 2020 – an impressive achievement in the face of the twin financial challenges provided by Coronavirus and Brexit.

PRIMA is the home of Bailey parts and accessories. They are a separate company, wholly owned by Bailey of Bristol, who specialise in the supply of parts and accessories to the outdoor leisure industry. With a choice of up to 20,000 products available to purchase through a dedicated e-commerce website, www.primaleisure.com , Retailers, Service Centres and Customers can order items on-line for next day delivery direct to their door.

In addition to continuing to drive future business growth at PRIMA Claire’s next major challenge will be to restructure Bailey Group Aftercare to ensure we will be able to provide a first-class level of aftercare to our existing caravan and motorhome owners. At present the Bailey and PRIMA Customer Service teams operate independently and are based in two separate locations. In order to offer a more integrated service Bailey has therefore taken the decision to combine both teams and locate them all at the PRIMA premises in North Bristol.

This single operation will receive additional support from a newly formed Product Performance Team which will provide on-going technical assistance as well as assessing how our vehicles function in use to generate accurate data driven quality feedback.

The South Liberty Lane based Bailey Service Centre and the popular Rapid Response Teams will also become part of the newly created Bailey Group Aftercare Department. Further details on the changes we will be making to the area of the business will be announced in due course.

Claire is a Chartered Certified Accountant with over 15 years’ experience in Corporate Finance. She began her career at Ernst and Young where she worked for nearly 10 years’ before being seconded to Ulster Bank in Dublin shortly after completing her qualification exams. Claire returned to the UK in 2016 where she joined restaurant chain Loungers, working for their Cosy Club brand as a Finance Business Partner. Claire’s varied background has given her a wealth of operational and financial knowledge across various industries including manufacturing, retail, health care and financial services.

Commenting on her appointment Claire said “I am delighted to be joining the Bailey Board and am looking forward to playing my part in the future development of this dynamic family owned business”.

Bailey Managing Director Nick Howard added, “To have somebody of Claire’s pedigree joining the Bailey Board will be a huge asset to our company going forward. She has a proven track record of performance to date with PRIMA and already has exciting plans in place for the future development of our Aftercare operations. She becomes our newest Director at an exciting time for the company as we look to maximize the opportunities afforded by the recent surge in demand for outdoor leisure vehicles and accessories”