Page 30 - Australasian Paint & Panel March-April 2022

Industry Insights
30
PAINT&PANEL MARCH / APRIL 2022
COLLABORATIVE GROUPS
LAST ISSUE WE TALKED TO A SPREAD OF MULTI-SITE OPERATORS (MSOS). THIS ISSUE WE LOOK AT THE FRANCHISES AND AT CAR CRAFT.
T
HERE’S ALWAYS A MYRIAD
of ways to shine a penny in this industry where so many diverse business models thrive. As the MSOs multiply and soak up large volumes of work, many independents have said that they are feeling more iso- lated. Is joining a group or a franchise the answer? It could very well be –each mod- el is different and each has its advantag- es. Business owners often expect that joining a group or a franchise will result in extra work opportunities. While it ac-
tually does, it doesn’t mean that joining a group automatically spoon
feeds you work from large
fleets or a ‘Crunch and Go’ insurance company. The groups Fix Auto, Car Craft and Sheen Panel Service aren’t just look- ing for any old repairer to join their net- works and – with the exception of Sheens – will specifically tell you they don’t guarantee work provision. What they are looking for is people who align with their values and standards; people who want to improve and grow their business and make the most out of the support and op- portunities a cooperative environment can offer.
FIX AUTO
SITES 17
NO EMPLOYEES IN GROUP 180
ESTABLISHED 1992 in Canada, 2016 in Australia
FIX AUTO IS THE LARGEST COLLISION
repair franchise in the world with 720 locations in 11 countries. While it had a slow start in Australia the network has been steadily gathering momentum.
Stuart Faid Fix Auto’s Regional Vice President Asia, Australia, New Zealand believes his model to be the best of both worlds - independent yet corporate.
“Our industry has always been ripe for consolidation and has held out for far longer than others. When you look at it objectively you can see the many benefits that come out of a consolidated workflow – standard- ised work processes; streamlined manage- ment; unified standards; reduced points of contact etc. With so much of the work com- ing from the insurance companies, one of their biggest challenges is managing the complexity of their repair networks. So, when someone offered them a radically consolidated solution, you can see why they
were excited. However, this model seems to have not quite lived up to all of the expectations. For sure, they have been able to drive down the cost of repairs by leveraging scale but it’s clear that the final outcome for both the insurer and the customer is not all they had hoped for. And based on what we see, the financial outcomes of that model only seem to be
working for the insurer.
“It’s widely accepted that indepen-
dently owned, family businesses just do things differently and this is most obvi- ously seen in the service levels and custom- er experience they deliver. Of course those shops struggle to compete with corporates with their systems, processes, support and