Page 93 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine Nov-Dec 2021

BEST COUNTRY REPAIRER QLD
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.A
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BISSELL’S PAINT & PANEL
BISSELLS’S PAINT & PANEL TOOK THE NATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST BOUTIQUE SHOP LAST YEAR WHERE WE WIDENED OUR JUDGING NET VIA ZOOM.
Clean, organised, well lit and well equipped
– what’s not to love?
S TRICTLY SPEAKING BY OUR current rules the location in Noosa means that Bissell’s is in the country shop category. Since we visited last year owner Iain Kippen (Kip) has increased the business by 20%. They’ve gone from 40 cars per week to averaging 50 car per week and he reckons they’ve hit their sweet spot. The vast majority of work comes through RACQ, Suncorp, Allianz, QBE, Hollard
and assessing company AAMC.
This is quite simply a stunning shop
– inside and out. It was purpose built and is totally fit for purpose. It has one of the best workshop flows we’ve seen. One of the secrets to this is the multiple points of access thanks to strategically positioned roller doors.
From Kip’s large office you can look over this busy shop and see that it’s clean and supremely well ordered. The exterior is worthy of a prestige car dealership and oozes kerb appeal. There’s customer parking and two undercover estimating bays with bright lights to spot all the damage. Don’t get us started on the amazing reception or the bar upstairs
(well you have to have one don’t you?) There are no manic Mondays or frantic Fridays here. Bissell’s targets between 8 to 10 cars per day. Those cars are parked in the driveway at the front of the shop which leads to the panel shop. This is where the guys go to write the vehicles up and get the stickers on which tell the technicians everything they need to know. Then the production manager
brings it in to the repair process.
Around the back end of the building is a large, covered parking space for vehi- cles that are in production. The drive through booths back onto here so cars can be driven straight out. Next to the booths are three sets of roller doors at the entrance to the panel shop and here you find six bays for small to medium repairs. Each repairer has two bays each
so they can work on two cars at once. At the back of the shop are the struc- tural repair bays. There’s also a welding bay that can be curtained off if there’s any messy work to be done. There’s an alu- minium repair bay which isn’t used much
but talks with Tesla could change that. Over in the paint shop the paint mix-
ing room is immaculate “Cheeky bug- gers got me to put air conditioning in,’ says Kip “It’s like a fridge in here.”
Once repairs are completed the car is detailed in the wash bay and then parked directly opposite where there are two bays identified as pre-delivery. Under the ultra-bright lights the estimator, who knows exactly work was required, undertakes the final inspection and will also handover to the customer.
Every Thursday Kip touches base with the team to check everyone has what they need and if there are any sugges- tions for improvements. In the mean- time he applies a lifetime of business know-how analysing the numbers, en- suring the business is efficient and gen- erating profit. If I seems like I’m gushing then next time you are in Noosa drop in and see if you don’t too.
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