Page 31 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine May-June 2022
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What has changed is the cars; the skills and equipment needed to fix them safely; and the professionalism of the in- dustry. The first ever (and there was only one) winner of the Paint & Panel Panel Beater of the Year Award in 1996, Crawfords, was widely considered to be too swanky to be a ‘panel shop’. The magazine has always highlighted the in- dustry movers and shakers to offer ideas and inspiration to the rest of the indus- try. Renamed Marque Motor Body Re-
pairs it is now a Mercedes-Benz exclu- sive repairer demonstrating how so many of the winners over the years are ahead of the game and were carving out niches and specialities – well before the rest of the pack caught on.
Over the years IAG/NRMA has had the longest horns and tail, then Suncorp, then IAG again. Both dabbled in running their own repair facilities, then consoli- dation and vertical integration stockpiled the steroids around 1990 and bulked up.
FROM LEFT CLOCKWISE: Bikinis sell paint right?; The answer has always been (d). We’re not attracting apprentices why?; Long running colour campaign; No wonder there weren’t many women in the industry.
