Page 18 - Australasian Paint & Panel May-June 2020

18
News • In Focus
PAINT&PANEL MAY / JUNE 2020
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
SYDNEY SHOP TOUR
THE PAINT & PANEL SYDNEY SHOP TOUR, SPONSORED BY SAPE ON 12 MARCH WAS A GREAT DAY FOR ALL WHO TOOK PART.
T
HE GROUP COMPRISED OF
shop owners from as far afield as Queensland, Adelaide and country New South Wales. The first stop was the enormous and ex- tremely impressive Lexus of Chatswood Body and Paint. Not only does it have an amazing customer reception with restau- rant, but the Maserati and supercar floor
was simply stunning.
The vast bodyshop in the basement
houses a spotless paint room, spray booths, and an aluminium/mixed mate- rial booth and is extremely well laid out. Thank you to general manager Joey Ste- phan for showing us around.
Next we visited Gemini Chatswood were manager Terry McGuirk gave a de- tailed tour sharing the processes that they use at this heavy vehicle repair fa- cility which is just under a year old. The shop is on two levels with assessments and pick ups in the basement and panel beating and paint on the ground level.
A tour of SAPE's HQ followed lunch in the equipment showroom. Warren and Paul McMartin showed the group around the warehouse and the training facilities.
Our last visit of the day was to Marrick- ville Prestige Smash Repairs (MPSR). John Karavasilias has built a stunning new shop around the corner from his established
shop. He shared his thoughts on how the new shop will operate and showed the group both shops. As an add- ed bonus MPSR brand am- bassador former Sydney Roosters captain Anthony Minichiello was there and many of the tour had their picture taken with him.
Dan Maher from L&M Smash Repair's said.
LEFT: Warren McMartin, SAPE
"Seeing how the “other half” lived over in Artarmon in the prestige district I was blown away by the shop fronts and recep- tion areas. The order and cleanliness of the workshops were on par with their shop fronts and were equally as impres- sive. The systems and processes on the floor were managed extremely well and I plan to implement some of these processes in our own business.
"The Gemini shop we visited looked like it was off to a good start. Having only been around for a few months it was lacking vehicle volume which I’m sure will ramp up after our current COV- ID19 pandemic concludes.
"SAPE's HQ was on a whole new level. It was like a panel beaters' Disneyland with the amount of toys they had on hand.
"Our final leg of the trip was Jonny Ks new megafactory in Marrickville MPSR. His new facility was breathtaking and sets the new benchmark for high quality volume vehicle repairs. Seeing and walk- ing through these facilities is a breath of fresh air when it comes to motivation and fresh thinking.”
LEFT: Marrickville Prestige
BELOW: Lexus of Chatswood