Gino's Panel & Paint: Winner

AAMI/AP&P Autobody Repairer of the Year

Basil Scagliotta spent five years designing his ideal shop and finally saw through to fruition in early 1998, moving his business from an older building to a new purpose-built facility in South Fremantle.
Even before opening the new shop, Scagliotta had implemented processes and systems in his business to enable maximum efficiencies from his available resources. "I went down the Quality Assurance track four years ago, not because I thought I'd get more work -- I looked at it as a tool for efficiency. It forces me to talk to my people and go through my ideas for the business and listen to theirs," he says.
As a member of the board of Car Craft, chairman of the Automotive Training Centre in Perth and chairman of the body repair council of the MTA-WA, Scagliotta is deeply immersed in the crash repair industry in WA and his experience in these organisations is reflected in his attitude to his business. "I am always open to sharing ideas -- something like Car Craft allows me to share things with other repairers without being stabbed in the back and I like to think that's the same sort of atmosphere in my shop."
Scagliotta has used the recent lull in the repair market in WA to his advantage. "My guys get worried [if work slackens off] but I look at the big Although he is focussed on volume, Scagliotta is well aware that if quality suffers as a result of increased capacity, it is the bottom line that suffers. "Do it correctly first and efficiently second," he says. "I explain to all my staff that if I get a comeback on say a $300 job, which I made say 20 per cent on -- $60 -- it will actually cost me $240 to do the job again."

Who: Basil Scagliotta
What: 1000 sq m workshop
20 employees
30 cars repaired/week
Glasurit
AutoQuote
Where: South Fremantle
When: New shop opened February '98