Page 32 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine Nov-Dec 2021

PEOPLE MATTER
32
PAINT&PANEL NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
this
seat’
-
33 MCCARTHY’S 50TH • 34 MANDATORY VACCINATION REPORT
DRIVING FORCE
TO CELEBRATE 50 YEARS IN THE BUSINESS AND BE AN INDUSTRY LEADER IN TERMS OF TRAINING AND STANDARD IS A SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT.
C ONGRATULATIONS TO MCCA- rthy Panel Works which has celebrated its 50th anniversary year. Phillip Ross talked to
Andrea McCarthy.
‘Putting you back in the driver’s
may sound like a simple, clever mar keting slogan but for McCarthy Panel Works in Mackay, they take pride in ensuring it means a whole lot more.
Fifty years ago two couples joined forc- es and started McCarthy Panel Works in the suburbs of Mackay. Ted and Lorraine McCarthy and partners, the Deakins, opened the 200 square metre shed in 1971.
In 1987, Craig’s father had passed away, so Craig took on the responsibility of running the workshop in partnership with his mother. From the age of 20 Craig was running the business and a Mackay institution had begun.
It would take two children and anoth- er fifteen years before Andrea would join Craig working on the business lead- ing towards taking sole control of the company, which they achieved in 2010.
As with many successful business partnerships – and marriages - the two combine their particular skills and preferences to work together. Andrea prefers the office administration side, such as human resources, client liai- son, suppliers and team management. Craig focuses on the workshop and is a self-confessed numbers man. Says An- drea “he can tell you, at the drop of a hat, the percentage on any of the indi- vidual business sections.
“I hate numbers! So yeah, we work as a team.”
It pays off. Craig and Andrea knew the key to expansion was the team. Change
He can tell you,
at the drop of a hat, the percentage on any
of the individual business sections”
is scary but necessary, so budget was found to provide team training.
I-Car was setting up in Australia and Craig wanted in, so he worked with I- Car Australia and arranged training for the whole team.
The problem was, as a regional shop, getting one technician at a time to Bris- bane was never going to work. So instead, they organised another first and got I-Car to send a trainer to them. It was cost effec- tive to train everyone at the same time.
“We got to do some of the very first courses delivered in the country,” says Andrea.
By 2013 the company achieved Gold Class Repairer Status, the first repairer in the country to do so and have re- tained the accreditation ever since.
By 2017 Andrea was elected to the in- dustry advisory board of I-Car Australia the first woman in the role. A new life was opening up for her and McCarthy Panel Works. She was already on the Motor Trades Association of Queensland (MTAQ) Committee and, as the only fe- male, was helping to work her way
through the ‘boy’s club’ mentality and entrenched historical positions.
Two years later Andrea was appointed to the board of the MTAQ. The company purchased property across the road, spe- cifically for the evolution in vehicle re- pair for aluminium and mixed metal ve- hicles: hybrids and electrics.
While the motto may be ‘putting you back in the driver’s seat’ it is obvious that both Andrea and partner Craig have been in the driver’s seat for fifty years making McCarthy Repair Works not only a qual- ity repair shop but also ensuring the in- dustry keeps driving forward to provide the best for customers and their cars.
As this story was being written, Mac- kay just received its second hailstorm in history that passed directly over their shop: more work coming!
TOP:Team McCarthy.
ABOVE: Craig and Andrea McCarthy.