Page 60 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine Nov-Dec 2021

60
BEST NEW WA
PAINT&PANEL
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021
PERTH
panel in two separate buildings is not ideal but the Damers have made intelligent use of the new layout. You can drive out of the panel shop and straight across into the paint prep area. The new building which houses the office, the customer area and the paintshop means that the panel shop has heaps more space and production can be ramped up. “It’s worked out really well for us,” Jamie said.
Having gone through the pain of insurers reducing their networks. the importance of having varied work streams became starkly apparent. “We have a really good mix of work, we have fleet contracts like for Can- ning council, which is huge, and for hire car companies. We are also an accredited re- pairer for Comminsure and do a lot of work for RAC.” The couple have forged relation- ships with local companies and enjoy a steady stream of work from them.
In the new building the reception area is stunning. Beautifully designed with wood
SHOP STATS
AUTOBODY REPAIRS
THIS IS A STORY ABOUT STARTING FROM SCRATCH AND BUILDING UP FROM A TINY ACORN OF A WORKSHOP TO A LARGE BUSINESS WITH DIVERSE SOURCES OF WORK.
wife Elisha took the plunge in 2006 to open J up their own repair busi- ness. Jamie is a paint tech by trade and worked at some other award winning shops in Perth, including West Perth Panel and Paint and luxury car re- pairer Lombardis, before branching out
on his own.
“I wanted to build a business where I
could combine the best attributes of the shops I had worked in before, the idea was to create the perfect shop.”
The reality is of course there is no
AMIE DAMER AND HIS
such thing as a perfect shop - or a fin- ished one. One of the common attributes of the award winners that we feature each year is that every single owner will tell you about their plans to make it even better and when we go back a couple of years later, by and large they have.
I can’t imagine what the original shop must have been like with a teeny 150m2 footprint, or even how it looked when what is now the panel shop and parts area also housed the paint shop. Clearly the Damers made it work so that they generated income to keep expanding. We always say that having paint and
FOUNDED: 2006
SIZE: 1,500m2
STAFF: 10
TYPE OF WORK: All
OTHER SERVICES: N/A
APPROX CARS PER WEEK: 25-30 OEM BADGES: N/A