Appearances count, says Simon Heaps, Managing Director of Future Display & Shopfitting:

“All the client sees when we are on site is our staff and our vehicle, so we can’t turn up in a battered old van. It is essential that we present ourselves in a professional manner, because this reassures customers about the quality of our service and workmanship.”

Unsurprisingly, Mr Heaps is a big fan of Mercedes-Benz vans and recently added a new model Vito Sport to his fleet, alongside two larger Sprinter vans. The Vito Sport is a real piece of eye candy and definitely ticks all the boxes in the image stakes.

Future’s new van is a long-bodied 116 BlueTEC Vito Sport, equipped with 17″ alloy wheels, colour-coded bumpers and chrome trim and sidebars. Under the bonnet is Merc’s 2.1-litre, 163bhp twin-turbo diesel, which boasts combined cycle fuel consumption of 47.1mpg.

The van clearly serves as a rolling advert for Future’s business and the firm’s choice of a smaller van means that it is used for site surveys and smaller jobs where access may be difficult for larger vans.