Page 90 - Australasian Paint & Panel Magazine Sep-Oct 2018

2018 REGIONAL WINNER SOUTH AUSTRALIA
POWELL’S COMMENTS
A well laid out workshop coupled with highly trained technicians and a contemporary business plan makes this an ideal environment for repairing the sophisticated cars of the shop’s customer base.
SHOP STATS
Size: 3000m2
Staff: 15
Type of repair: Mainly heavy structural AVG cars repaired per week: 30-40
A highly trained, high motivated team kicking goals in the prestige repair market in Adelaide.
BEST LARGE SA
AUSTRALIAN CRASH REPAIRS
A well run prestige shop with a management team steeped in industry experience driving the business forward.
A WELL RUN prestige shop with a management team steeped in industry experience driving the business forward.
Mario Cavallo has been in the auto repair business since 1969 and has established his business as a leader in the repair of prestige vehicles in Adelaide.
The business has a long association with BMW and Alfa Romeo being factory approved for both and is also a Subaru repairer. Cavallo’s passion for cars and the accompanying complex technology has led him to assemble a team of like-minded technicians and managers who relish training and keeping ahead of the technological curve. This has led to a specialisation in heavy structural repairs.
Having built up the business it’s great to see a succession plan in action with three partners who came on board three years ago to run the shop day to day. Peter D’Orsi was a technical rep for Glasurit who specialised in training, he runs the paint shop. Dominic Boffo has been with Australian Crash Repairs for over 15 years and, apparently, what he doesn’t know about BMWs isn’t worth knowing, Boffo runs the panel shop. Gavin Rich spent 12 years as a motor vehicle assessor and so understands the business from both sides of the fence – he works on the overall business. Rich has built on the firm foundation of relationships with local dealerships which has resulted in more luxury car repair clients, especially those who sport the prancing pony on their bonnets. He has also developed relationship with different
22 PAINT&PANEL September / October 2018
insurance companies and structured the company to operate and present itself in a more ‘corporate’ manner.
Whatever they are doing there it is clearly working. There are many long serving staff on the crew and they all seemed cheerful and productive when we visited: “We just have a really good team environment,” said Rich, “it just really works,”
With just four panel techs, five painters, two details and four office staff repairing 30 to 40 cars a week, the majority of which are heavy structural, we’d agree it clearly does work. It’s a large, long shop with paint at the rear and in the middle which allows for a logical squashed U shape – more of a semi circle but a very functional one. The work bays are spacious, the parts trollies and equipment are stored tidily at the back of the workshop. Shadow boards and wall storage ensures the floor is unclutters and the right tool is always to hand. The paints room is clean and well organsied. There’s a separate section of the workshop where any restoration projects or equipment that isn’t used days to day is stored out of the way. Upstairs is a mezzanine floor with the staff lunch room and a board room where training also takes place.
This is an old shop bit it’s well maintained and presents well, we think as it approaches its 50th anniversary that it is poised to be around for another 50 years – management willing.
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