Karavasilias started working with his father and uncle at the family run business Marrickville Prestige Smash back in 2006. A qualified panelbeater he was keen to learn everything he could about running a successful autobody repair business.
In 2014, he began a major renovation with the intention of improving workflow and creating better customer facilities. Still very young, at just 25, he turned to Lowbake for guidance on how best to maximise the space he had in a relatively small shop. “I learnt so much from Mark Williams and the team over the renovation period,” he said.
The renovations and improvements have continued ever since, and the business has grown considerably. The original Marrickville shop doubled its output and Karavasilias managed to rent the neighboring building adding more floor space.
A Lowbake Aluminum Repair Room was recently installed, with Karavasilias striving to add to the Holden, Suzuki and Peugeot manufacturer approvals the business has already gained. He was one of the first shops in Australia to achieve Gold Class back in 2014.
Karavasilias, like most good repair shop owners, is an incredibly hard worker. He often starts work at 2am to get a jump on the day while the telephones are quiet.
Once he had Marrickville up and running how he wanted it, he decided he was ready for the challenge of running another shop. Two opportunities arose as the same time – one was a boutique shop in Brookvale and the other a huge space around the corner from the original shop. “Ideally I would have liked to have tackled them one at a time, but business was booming so I dived right in. I love a challenge”, he said.
Lowbake were there to help with Mark Williams tackling the trickier boutique shop in Brookvale and his son, Chris Williams working on the huge new Marrickville site to achieve Karavasilias’ vision. The idea for Marrickville was to have one site devoted to OEM work and one to general insurance work.
Brookvale was finished at the beginning of the year and Karavasilias decided to delay its opening while he was busy with the new Marrickville fit out. The new Marrickville site was finished just in time for the Paint & Panel shop tour on 13 March. Everyone on the tour agreed that it is a stunning shop. Then lockdown struck and unfortunately both new shops remained closed.
Karavasilias employs 457 visa workers from the Philippines who aren’t eligible for JobKeeper. To protect their livelihoods he kept them working on a part-time basis. Like most business owners he had to make difficult decisions such as making some of his staff redundant. He has stretched his resources as much as possible to keep most of the team together.
Having to keep the roller doors closed due to COVID-19, Karavasilias was left frustrated and deflated.
Like every industry, rumours float around including whispers that Karavasilias’ new business is going under. Yet Karavasilias remains positive and excited about the future: “Perseverance is key to operating a business and the Covid-19 lockdown is something that no one could ever have predicted. Everyone is in the same boat”.
Although Covid-19 has come with many negatives and has set many companies back, it has granted Karavasilias time in the office. This has allowed him to catch up on admin backlog keeping him relatively busy and getting all his ducks in a row. “I’m now ready to pounce and looking forward to opening,” he said.