Is it your time to shine? The Paint and Panel Bodyshop awards are now in their 29th year and have grown from a tiny acorn back in 1996 to the huge, inclusive event it is today. Taking part in the Bodyshop Awards allows you to boost team morale and gives you some time to reflect on your achievements.
We're opening the awards a little bit earlier this year to give you all time to polish those nominations - entries open this Thursday 11 April. Today we launched a new dedicated awards website where you will find the appropriate links for nominating one of your customers if you are an industry supplier, or self-nominating if you are a collision repairer. You can also find all of the judging criteria, which you can easily download as a pdf, to guide you through your nomination.
In order to be considered for judging you must fill in your nomination on the awards portal. If you have been nominated by a supplier then we will be letting you know via email and sending you the link to the judging portal. There's also
The awards evolve to keep in step with changes in the industry. and this year we have some new awards.
Apprentice of the year and Emerging Leader
Recognising and rewarding young talent in our ageing workforce has never been so important. We now have two awards for young talent: an Apprentice of the Year award (26 and under) and an Emerging Leader Award which is for people under the age of 30 who demonstrate leadership or leadership potential.
Specialist repairer
We have created a new category for repairers who fall outside of tradition collision repair. This will include restoration shops which have proliferated in recent years as well as hail repairers and heavy vehicle repairers.
Parts Manager of the Year
We introduced the Manager of the Year category a couple of years ago and so many outstanding people have been nominated. We believe that Parts Managers are the unsung heroes of many collision repair businesses, beavering away in the background and facilitating a productive workshop. They are well overdue for their own category.
Getting involved
Entries open on 11 April judging will take place in July. This year Sam Street and Neil Powell will be judging in person in NSW, ACT and SA and by Zoom elsewhere. Street and Powell will be selecting the shops to put forward to the judging panel who will select the finalists and winners.
The finalists are announced in September, the winners will be announced at a glittering awards night held at Montage in Sydney on 22 November. As well as a trophy, winners also receive a winners' logo that can be used on marketing materials, social media, and email sign off so that everyone knows of your achievement.
When you visit the awards portal, you will be asked to give us more details about your business and confirm which categories you wish enter. This year we are breaking down the marking system to better guide entrants in giving the information the judges are looking for. It will take at least one hour to fill out the awards portal and we ask for a number of images to accompany your entry.
As the final judging panel don’t take part in the initial judging so we have asked those entering the best shop categories to make a video tour of the premises of up to 90 seconds. If you head on over to the Paint & Panel YouTube channel you’ll find a guide to making that video there's also a link in the entry criteria document.
The categories for the 2024 Paint & Panel Bodyshop Awards are:
Best shop (two size categories defined by business turnover)
Best New Shop
Best Country Repairer
Best MSO
Best Corporate Shop
Best Dealer Owned Shop
Best Specialist Repairer
Best Practice Awards
Business Excellence
Best Customer Experience
Best Workplace (MSO and single site)
Community & Social Responsibility
Awards for individuals
Bodyshop Manager of the Year
Emerging leader (under 30)
Apprentice of the Year
Parts Manager of the Year