Page 8 - Australasian Paint & Panel Nov-Dec 2019

NEWS
8
PAINT&PANEL
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
FROM LEFT: Maxine Colligan; Jarrah Moon, Aidan Bail.
PPG COLOUR MATCHING COMPETITION
IAG RESULT ‘PLEASING’
PETER HARMER DESCRIBED IAG'S
performance for the 2019 financial year as a 'very pleasing result' at its recent AGM.
He reported that gross written premi- ums grew by just over 3%, largely from increased prices, supplemented by a fa- vourable foreign exchange rate with New Zealand. "Like-for-like premium growth across the Group was close to 4%.
Our underlying insurance margin continued the improvement we recorded last year, increasing to 16.6%.
Net profit after tax of $1,076 million was over 16% higher than in the 2018 financial year, because it included an over $200 million profit on the sale of the Thailand operations.
"This year, we have focused on how we might grow customer engagement and pursue longer term growth opportunities.
Our Customer Labs team continued to digitise our home and motor claim processes.
We can now increasingly personalise the experiences we offer customers, and con- nect them to more products and services.
One development means that cus- tomers can now track motor repairs via SMS updates – which has proved very popular."
Referring to Repairhub he said: "We are now taking significant steps to build new businesses that complement our core insurance offering. We’ve also been busy refining our enhanced repair mod- el. We now have majority ownership of a number of rapid repair motor work- shops. We will expand the model more broadly across Australia and New Zealand in the coming year.I’m pleased to advise that
RACV is one of
our partners in
this initiative,"
Harmer said
and closed by
saying that it
has been an-
other very sat-
isfactory year.
WA’S JARRAH MOON WON THE 2019
PPG International Colour Matching Competition.
It started with preliminary competi- tions which gave apprentices across the region the opportunity to sharpen their colour matching skills. At the end of Oc- tober, the nine finalists gathered at Kan- gan Institute’s Automotive Centre of Ex- cellence (ACE), in Melbourne’s Docklands precinct to battle it out for the coveted trophy.
According to PPG National Colour Au- ditor, Manny Grillo, the colours chosen for the final were a balance between be- ing challenging enough for a competi- tion final without being too difficult for these young tradespeople. Both the solid COB colour and the metallic colour were based on the modern greys. The compe- tition kicked off with a 60-minute time- frame in which to match the COB solid colour. After a break, contestants re- ceived a further 60 minutes to match the metallic colour.
After the pressure of competition, the group wound down with an ‘introduc-
tion to airbrushing’ session from region wide airbrushing school, Airbrush Ven- turi. Winner Moon said: “I thought I did okay in the competition but not brilliant so I was actually surprised when they read out my name. I knew my first col- our was pretty good tonal-wise but it was a tiny bit too red. I was not as confi- dent with the metallic colour because the face was looking coarse and dirty but the flip angle was pretty good. I end- ed up doing alright, I guess.”
2019 RESULTS
• 1st place – WA – Jarrah Moon – South Metropolitan TAFE
• iPad Air, a MIRKA DEROS sander and a SATA Vision 5000 hood
• 2nd place – NT – Aidan Bail – Charles Darwin University
• Nintendo Switch with Super Smash Bros Ultimate game and a MIRKA DEROS sander
• 3rd place – NSW – Maxine Colligan – TAFE NSW Campbelltown
• Ultimate Ears Bluetooth Speaker and a MIRKA DEROS sander