Page 26 - Australian Paint & Panel March-April 2020

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Group Chat • Strategic Collision Repair Group
PAINT&PANEL
MARCH / APRIL 2020
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
While the group, as a whole, repairs for every insurance group, its primary relationship is with IAG.
Macri continues to outline the integra- tion process: “Horizon one is providing to each of the sites the benefit of being part of a group. For instance, let’s en- sure we have the best safety procedures and we’ll always be learning and im- proving by cross fertilising from the dif- ferent businesses. Centralised HR will ensure we maintain the right culture by hiring the right people who will sit well with the collective view. Once they join us, they can reap the benefit of being in a larger group which includes training and letting team members work in dif- ferent branches.
“Horizon two is how you best partici- pate in the industry going forward. For us it’s all about understanding what pol- icy holders want. That sounds really simple – you might say they just want their car repaired and that they want it back when you say it will be ready.
However, we’re asking is there a bet- ter way to serve the policy holder and the insurer? Should we offer a valet service where we go to them and home deliver the car? That valet service is prevalent in other industries and could work in ours. Horizon two is listening
ABOVE: Coulson Bodyworks in Unanderra is also a founding member.
LEFT: Craig McGregor is happy with how SCRG is structured.
We want to own the businesses and for the principle to run the business and to add value where they can.”
Turning to McGregor I wondered what is different about Bodyline as an inde- pendent and Bodyline as part of SRGR?
“You can pick up the phone and talk to the others in the group,” McGregor says. “When you are on your own you’re flying blind. I speak to the guys every day – you don’t feel like you’re on a little island by yourself. You feel like you are part of something, which is important.
“I’ve gone from the director and own- er of Bodyline to the general manager. I realised two or three years ago that I couldn’t keep running the business the way I was. The writing was on the wall, consolidation is in everyone’s face – if you sit on your hands you’re going to get gobbled up. So I explored all the available avenues and Strategic just made the most sense to me. It’s got long term prospects, I only turned 40 this
“What we need to do is to keep
focusing on what is in the best interests of the policy holder or
else why would the insurer give us a preferred status over the guy down the road?”
to the insurance compa- nies about how they want us to respond to their poli- cy holders’ needs. It’s not us saying we’ll repair 100 carsadayanddoitfora dollar cheaper than the guy down the road because that’s not a sustainable business model and it’s not a point of differentiation.
year – I’ve got plenty of years left in me.” “We have started changing over our paint systems so that we are all using Standoblue. We are sourcing all of our consumables with Finixa – the range of stuff they have is phenomenal and eve- ryone is now using PartsCheck. Going forward we’ll all be using the same products and the same processes so we’ll be providing the same level of re- sult throughout the group. We have cen- tralised HR and have a code of conduct for all our staff. We’ve gone from 14 em- ployees at Bodyline to 200 employees in
Strategic,” McGregor says.
We have to assume our competitors can repair cars and at an attractive price. What we need to do is to keep focusing on what is in the best inter- ests of the policy holder or else why would the insurer give us a preferred status over the guy down the road?” Macri said.
“I think it’s more about understanding what’s in it for their policy holder but at the moment the industry is saying ‘what’s in it for us?’’ "What’s our repair cost?" I think if we focus more of what’s in it for them, then the what’s in it for us will become more obvious.”