We understand that many shops have been grappling with survival and adapting to demands of becoming Covid-19 compliant. Now that it appears, fingers, toes and eyelashes crossed, that restirictions may slowly be lifting, road traffic levels are rising and we can begin to look ahead.
It hasn't been clear if and when interestate travel would be reininstated and so we decided to extend the nomination period for the awards to 19 June and carry out the judging in late July, early August when we hope we will be able to visit the nominees. If you have been spending downtime reorganising and improving your business then this could be your time to shine.
We encourage suppliers to nominate great shops and for great shops to nominate themselves. We've already had over 80 entries and we expect many more before the new closing date.
The Paint & Panel Bodyshop Awards aim to shine the spotlight on as many businesses as we can who excel in the field of autobody repair. There are also awards for individuals in the categories of Young Achiever and Rising Star.
Each year the judging team, made up of editor Sam Street and industry stalwart Neil Powell, look forward to visiting as many collision repair businesses as possible and recognising excellence in a number of categories and aspects of the industry.
The best shop awards recognise the different business demands of running a boutique, medium or large shop and select the best of those judged in each state.
It’s not about having a shiny new facility – unless you’ve entered the new shop category. It’s about having a professional, well run, well equipped business which invests in its staff and keeps up to date with the constantly evolving demands of this complex industry. The entry criteria and all the information can be found here.
As well as all of the established awards such as Best Shop and the Axalta Business Excellence Award this year we have a new award called Training and Development. We're looking for businesses who really invest in their team for example: technical training, bringing on apprentices, OH&S and first aid training, business management courses, customer service, you get the idea.
Nominating is quick and easy - all you need to do is put your name and contact details and those of the shop or individual you want to nominate. Self nominations are encouraged. You can nominate up to three businesses at once on the Survey Monkey form and you can nominate them for Best Shop and Best Practice awards or just Best Practice awards. We also have a frequently asked questions section on the website.
We love visiting shops we haven't been to before so if you have never nominated your business, make 2020 the year to do so. Winners will be flown (where applicable and if Covid-19 restirction allow) to our glittering awards dinner which we hope will take place in Melbourne on 13 November and will be profiled in the magazine. If we are unable to hold the awards dinner we may either come up with a virtual solution or postpone the event to January if it looks as if large gathering may be allowed by then.
If you have won an award before you can’t be considered in the same category for two years. However, you can enter for a different category – for instance one of the best practice awards. If you have 3-15 shop sites you can enter for the Best MSO award, however you can still put one of your shops forward for the Best Shop category.
If you have been judged in the past and haven’t won you are encouraged to enter again – there have been many winners who took two or three years of the judges seeing improvements in their business before they finally took home a trophy.
If you want to find out more about how your business could benefit from entering the awards head on over to the Podcast section and listen to episode three.
Thank you to all of our award sponsors: Compass Claims, Axalta Coating Systems, iBodyshop, Glasurit, PPG, City Hino, ACM Parts, Parts Check, Norton St Gobain, Car Craft, AkzoNobel, MTAA, Collision Repair Expo and Car-O-Liner for continuing to support and encourage excellence in the industry.