Page 10 - Australasian Paint & Panel July-August 2019

NEWS
10
PAINT&PANEL JULY / AUGUST 2019
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
LEFT: Sheen Panel Services’ Lyons Bodyshop scooped VACC best large shop.
BELOW: Tasmania’s Body Repairer Of The Year Southern Smash Repairs.
MTA AWARD WINNERS
THIRTY-SIX BUSINESSES AND BUSINESS
people were announced as winners in the 2019 VACC Industry Awards. VACC CEO, GeoffGwilymsaidthattheVACCIndustry Awards demonstrate VACC members’ com- mitment to quality and customer service.
“It is a huge accolade to be named the best in Victoria and these businesses have all proved themselves worthy of that title,” Gwilym said.
New categories in this year’s VACC In- dustry Awards include Best Business Woman in Automotive and Young Entre- preneur of the Year.
Eight expert judges evaluated entries based on business management, work- place practices, customer service and
marketing and communication. To ensure that only the finest of VACC’s more than 5,500 members would be announced as fi- nalists,anindependentstandardsrepre- sentative audited the judging.
Category winners were announced at a black tie gala evening, featuring mas- ter of ceremonies, Larry Emdur on 22 June at the Grand Hyatt, Melbourne.
Congratulations to:
• Best Body Repairer - Passenger Vehi-
cle (small)
• Essendon Panels
• Best Body Repairer - Passenger Vehi-
cle (large)
• Lyons Bodyworks
• Best Business Woman in Automotive
• Michelle Ferbrache, Essendon Panels • Best Commercial Vehicle Body Repairer • Royans Melbourne
Congratulations also to Southern Smash Repairs who have been officially recognised as Tasmania’s Body Repairer Of The Year at the 2019 TACC Castrol Motor Industry Awards.
Awards across 13 categories were pre- sented including: achievement in body re- pair. Category winners were announced at a gala evening on Saturday, 25 May at Wrest Point Casino, Hobart.
Prestige repairer Lombari Bros won MTA WA’s The Body Repairer of the Year at its Au- tomotive Excellence Awards held 27 June at the Crown Towers Ballroom in Perth.
IAG TO OPEN REPAIR SHOP IN AUCKLAND
IAG IS OPENING ITS FIRST WHOLLY
owned collision repair facility in the Auckland suburb of East Tamaki later this year, reports Rex Crowther from Panel Talk magazine. Described as a trial, IAG is saying that this is in response to unaccep- table wait times for their insured to get their cars repaired.
The stated objectives in the email that repairers received are to:
• Deliver a consistent and market leading
experience for our customers which in- tegrates into our claims lodgement pro- cess and helps deliver a full end to end customer claims experience;
• Gets cars back on the road quickly using the latest processes and technology;
• To keep motor vehicle insurance af- fordable in the future.
IAG New Zealand have informed the
Collision Repair Association (CRA) that it is their intention, should this trial be success-
ful, to create their
own facilities
across the country.
The inevitable conclu-
sion must be that this will have an adverse effect on independently owned repairers businesses. They also advised the CRA that they were working on changing the word- ing on their policies to allow customers freedom of choice of repairer, but at an increased premium.