Page 46 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine Nov-Dec 2021

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2021 WINNERS
PAINT&PANEL NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021
CURATE’S EGG
JUDGING IN LOCKDOWN, INDUSTRY TRENDS AND SOME OF THE COMMON WINNING TRAITS. BY SAM STREET
I
T’S BEEN A CURATE’S EGG
kind of a year for the colli- sion repair industry. If you remember, the original story was about a young vicar who was given a bad egg at breakfast and when he was offered another, not wanting to offend the bishop, he replied - “oh no, it
was good in parts’.
More accurately it’s been a curate’s
egg on a rollercoaster. For the most part repairers in SA, WA, QLD and NT have been going gangbusters. What they lacked in international and interstate tourist traffic they made up for in the fact that everyone was holidaying in Australia or their own state and a lot of people were giving public transport the swerve. Meanwhile it was really tough for a lot of repairers in NSW and espe- cially hard on Victorian repairers.
Those that ticked along without too much pain were the ones who had spread their eggs across many baskets. They had contracts with local councils, fleets, police, ambulance etc. If you spe- cialise in van repairs you were onto a winner. The truck repair industry basi- cally kept on trucking.
As usual most repairers we talked to in the affected states were stoic about the situation - because what else can you do?
Each year we get more and more nom- inations, although not everyone takes the 10 minutes to fill out the information we need in the awards portal. Safe to say that the Car Craft network took the time and their members have really dominat- ed this year’s awards.
The vast majority of this year’s win- ners have achieved I-CAR Gold or are a gnat’s whisker away from doing so. Keeping up with vehicle technology and the latest repair methods is vital. Busi- nesses must have at least one panel beat-
er who has undertaken the I-CAR weld- ing certification or have had OEM welding training. On that note of course, training has been a huge challenge this year. So many courses cancelled - not all training can happen online. The paint companies and other industry suppliers have been great with online support, but there is a huge backlog of demand for face to face learning.
TRENDS
While restorations are often the enemy of an efficient and productive collision repair business they have been some- thing of a saviour for many during lockdowns to keep teams engaged and occupied. It is a blessing that the col- lectables market is thermonuclear hot
just now. The lockdowns have high- lighted, once again, the danger of the eggs/one basket scenario. Once this was about working for one insurance company, now it’s about having more
ABOVE: Awards Livestream hosts Tahir Bilgic and Sam Street