With a clean slate in front of them, South Australian car dealers Jim and Phil Rosenthal were able to design and develop a state-of-the-art automotive enterprise, with a clear focus on sustainable operations.
This approach assisted Rosenthal Automotive to win the 2010 Australasian Paint & Panel/DuPont Performance Coatings Sustainability Awards.
Part of the enterprise is Rosenthal Crash Repairs, a repair shop that supports the four dealerships the brothers operate in Berri in SA's Riverlands region – Holden, Hyundai, Mazda and Mitsubishi.
Jim Rosenthal says they spent three years consolidating the overall business, which operated a dealership in Renmark and another in Berri, and each had an associated panel shop.
They moved the Renmark business across to Berri and closed the existing Berri enterprise to combine the two operations into one new dealership site.
The same happened with the crash repair service, with the Renmark staff and facilities relocating to Berri.
Rosenthal says it gave them the opportunity to develop a state-of-the-art panel and paint shop with the latest in equipment.
This includes a Car-O-Liner bench and a CRS booth, and they also upgraded the management and computer systems, installing PPG management and Webtrim. The works also included building a public car wash.
For a full rundown on the DuPont/AP&P sustainability award, see the next issue of Paint & Panel, out soon.