Page 69 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine Nov-Dec 2021

WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.A
69
FOUNDED: 1984
SIZE: 1050m2
STAFF:17
TYPE OF WORK: All
OTHER SERVICES: N/A APPROX CARS PER WEEK: 40
JUDGE POWELL
David and Clarissa are continuing with
their business plan to extensively reconfigure and refurbish their
Blackburn location to suit the processes and procedures they developed at the Croydon facility which encompasses well defined adaptable work areas including state of the art repair, realigning and refinishing equipment.
U
SHOP STATS
number of car thefts and joy riders goes up - apparently Netflix doesn’t do it for thieves entertainment wise.
The parts receiving in the new panel shop is super organised and there’s a very smart office for the foreman and parts manager. Upstairs there’s a board- room for training and management meetings and an office for the ‘guvners’ David and Clarissa. The new building has enabled the business to grow and spread out. There’s more storage space on the second floor.
The panel shop is clean, tidy and bright. The marked out bays wide and there are more Teslas in there than you can shake a stick at. The Iacobucci’s are very happy that they went with Tesla and Tesla only. “They are the best cars to work on,” Dave says. “There are only three models and five colours. The tech- nicians love that as they repair so many of them they have all the procedures and colours down pat.”
Both branches are approved for Tesla repairs and they are on the lookout for a place to build a third branch. Obviously property searching has been just a tad tricky this year.
The customer service area is in the original building in front of the paint- shop and is modern and welcoming. The DSI branding is highly visible through- out the shops but not over the top.
DSI employs five apprentices be- tween the two branches and works with a company called Squad that thor- oughly vets the apprentices for their suitability and offers them support throughout their learning years. We wanted to hear more about this and got Dave to come on our weekly podcast.
It was David’s birthday when he gave us the zoom tour and he’s just a shade over 40, with seemingly boundless en- ergy and enthusiasm for the industry.
Their team is well looked after and seem to enjoy the family run business vibe mixed with sound processes, clear goals and a high standard of professionalism.
In order to focus even more on grow- ing the DSI brand and footprint, their management staff are being coached so that David and Clarissa can hand over the day to day running of the business.
With such ambition and drive
and the ability to curate great rela- tionships with work providers I’m sure they won’t stop at shop number three and that DSI will continue to be a regu- lar in these awards for years to come.
MAIN: The original building now houses the offices and paintshop.
ABOVE: New extended panel shop
JUDGES’ COMMENTS