Page 22 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine

I In n d d u u s s t t r r y y i i n n s s i i g g h h t t s s
22
PAINT&PANEL MARCH / APRIL 2023
FIX AUTO NETWORK NETWORK SIZE: 21
BUSINESS TYPE: Franchise EMPLOYEES: N/A
REFLECTING ON THE LAST 12 MONTHS
Stuart Faid says: “We’ve been waiting for people to bounce back from the pan- demic. I think everybody underestimat- ed the longer term implications for busi- nesses out there, whether that was recovering from staffing issues or vol- ume fluctuations. I’d say the first three quarters of 2022 were consumed by peo- ple just trying to figure out what the new normal is and how they fit.
“Our growth is driven by a very per- sonal exchange of values and philoso- phies. It isn’t just about signage and procedures – we handpick our partners.
“We talk to a number of repairers during the prospecting phase and we often come to the decision that they wouldn’t quite fit. That’s okay because it’s important to us that we get the cul- ture of our network right from its incep- tion. In Canada we have been operating since 1992 and with a requirement to renew your agreement every 5 years, that’s the real testament to the culture of the network there and that they have got it right. Locally in Australia we are focused on replicating that success and getting that balance”.
“When we came out of COVID a lot of the people that we were talking to were in a completely different space – men- tally, emotionally, commercially, finan- cially, everything had changed.
“Towards the end of 2022 it was like the floodgates opened and all of a sud- den we’ve got six or seven businesses looking to join the network in the first quarter and half of this year.
We wouldn’t want to onboard many more than that in a year, given the time, effort and resources we put into each
transition and helping those repairers get the maximum benefit of joining as quick- ly as possible. We’re not a growth by any means type business, we are very delib- erate with every business we partner with and we would rather retain integrity in our philosophy than scale at any cost.
CHANGING MARKET PLACE
Looking at what’s happening in the mar- ketplace now Faid thinks that if ever there was time to join a group it’s now.
“You’re throwing into the mix five or six medium sized consolidators who can offer greater agility in a lot of areas than one large one and they’re all on a growth trajectory. I believe that AMA will be less impactful on the landscape of the industry in the next two to three years than they were in the last five. The big- gest shifts in the landscape will be as a result of these micro consolidators and these businesses represent more of a risk to the single site independent repairers than ever before.” Faid says.
“I don’t believe that any of these micro consolidators are scaling to benefit the