We had a great time in Melbourne this week visiting finalists in the 2018 Paint & Panel Bodyshop Awards.
What did we find? Confident, productive, forward-thinking business owners that took great pride in their work and their teams.
Not a peep of complaint about business conditions, not a peep of complaint about work providers - these businesses just get on with their business and are constantly on the look out for ways to work smarter. This is a huge difference to attitudes even two years ago. While consolidation is all around it seems the market is big enough for everyone. These operators have adapted to market conditions and all seemed bursting at the seams with work. All except Spot On Panels - this autobody repair palace is only in its second month of operations and owner Vesco Jolif and his team are ramping up slowly to ensure that they hone processes before filling up. The shop is so large you can't help thinking a full Spot On Deer Park could have a significantly beneficial effect on Melbourne traffic congestion.
It seems that there is a trend to increase in-house services such as mechanical and auto electrical both to increase revenue and to keep control of cycle times.
Thank you for all the coffee (my none too subtle hints did not fall on deaf ears) and Geelong Smash Repairs - those cakes were to die for! Aplogies for the grey circle on all of the photos which makes some of the buildings look like they have a dirt splodge on them - a problem with my camera I shall resolve this week.
Next week we head off to Perth and Adelaide and look forward to meeting some more great operators.
Bodyshops visited were:
Bell Collision
Amex Autobody
Supertek
Luxury Autobody
Smash Repair Solutions Richmond
Geelong Smash Repairs
Spot On Panels
Sheen Panel Service Brooklyn
We also visited AutoXPod Extreme Dents for the innovation award but we'll tell you more about that in the next couple of weeks when the first pod is launched.
Thanks again to our award sponsors for making this program possible.
