Page 12 - Australasian Paint & Panel Magazine Mar-Apr 2021

NEWS
12
PAINT&PANEL
MARCH / APRIL 2021
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
IAG REPORTS NET LOSS OF $460 MILLION
BRIEFS
IAG MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CEO NICK
Hawkins said there was a strong un- derlying performance despite the company making a loss for the six months to December 31, compared with a $283 million profit for the pre- vious corresponding period. The loss was attributed to the expected cost of
CEO Nick Hawkins.
COVID-19 business interruption claims which Hawkins said was never intended to cover a pandemic. The company also reported growth in its customer base.
“We have strong margins across the business. Our underlying margin of 15.9% was an improvement on 2H20 (15.1%) and benefitted from lower motor
claims as a result of COVID-19.
Our insurance profit of $667 million
(1H20: $501 million) equated to a higher reported margin of 17.9% (1H20: 13.5%),” Hawkins said.
SNOWY SMASH REPAIRS JOINS CAR CRAFT
BEN AND LYNDAL MACKAY OWNERS OF
Snowy Smash Repairs in Tumut, NSW have joined the Car Craft network. “We pride ourselves on our customer service, but being in a small town you can feel isolated from the rest of the industry. We joined Car Craft so that we could network with like-minded repairers, learn from them and keep up with the latest indus- try developments and best practices,” said Lyndal. “This means that we will be able access new ways of doing things.”
The Mackays and their team are ex- cited to join Car Craft’s southern region and said that the ability to seek or give advice in the industry is vital to any suc- cessful independent business.
The benefits on top of the networking, such as parts supply deals, training sup- port and branding are a bonus.
More information about joining Car Craft at: carcraftgroup.com.au
Lyndal and Ben Mackay from Snowy Smash Repairs.
SUE HOUGHTON APPOINTED QBE CEO
Sue Houghton has been appointed as QBE Insurance Group’s new CEO for the Australia Pacific region.
Houghton, currently managing director of insurance at Westpac, will begin the new role at the Sydney-based QBE in August.
AUDI VW MERGE
Audi Australia is to be merged with Volkswagen Group Australia to unite as a single, stronger national sales company.
Subject to final approval by the parent companies in Germany, and locally by the Foreign Investment Review Board, the change process for the merger will effectively commence in May.
Paul Sansom managing director of Audi says that it will all be business as usual and he will continue to lead Audi Australia.
GROUP RENAULT APPOINTS DISTRIBUTOR
Groupe Renault has announced the appointment of an independent distributor to operate the Renault network in Australia.
Australia joins several overseas markets moving to distributorships as part of Group Renault’s global reorganisation.
Sydney-based RVDA will operate the Renault brand in Australia from 1 April this year. The existing Renault dealer network will remain unchanged.
QBE POSTS $19B LOSS
QBE chief executive Richard Pryce has said last financial year was one of the most expensive in history for natural disasters claims, driving the insurer to a $US1.5 billion ($1.93 billion) loss and prompting it to suspend its final dividend.