Hower Crash Repairs
When the temperature reached an estimated 45 degrees for the whole week in Lonsdale, South Australia last summer, Hower Crash Repairs stayed open when other shops closed.
The Hower shop was able to keep operating for several reasons, but mainly because owner Brett Hower judged that the shop would experience downtime if the temperatures rose constantly past the old century mark. He was right.
In what was probably the hottest summer for a very long time, or perhaps ever, Hower’s stayed open because he fitted the new shop with air conditioning. A large slice of the bodyshop hardly missed a beat with its new second panel beating building and nine work bays flooded with cool air dropping the temperature to 27 degrees.
It’s a valuable lesson for bodyshops that may experience temperature extremes. If you want to keep tradesmen productive then good temperature control may be for you.
It’s just one of a number of innovations for Hower who, together with his partner and wife Natalie, originally decided to invest in a paint shop by buying a 750 square metre building in Aldershot Road, Lonsdale.
Just recently when the adjoining panel beating building was purchased, the Howers discovered there was a floating ceiling above the work area and they kept it in place. This meant that air conditioning could be easily fitted. Building the new repair area took four months and is now fully operational.
The panel beating area in the new building holds nine work bays and each tradesman has his own work area. There are also three heavy alignment bays and there is a Globaljig Evolution to service them. The Evolution is the newest of the Globaljig models.
Now with the original 750 square metres paint shop and the 650 square metre new panel beating area working at full capacity, Hower is trying to catch-up on his waiting list of several weeks to get around to repairing some customer’s cars. His shop apparently is not alone with many in Adelaide operating with long waiting lists, but his is particularly busy.
Like so many in the state capital he is at a loss to understand what is causing this. Perhaps it’s a lack of bodyshops. There is certainly a lack of skilled tradesmen and that may be a contributing factor.
Hower, whose trade is as a spray painter, says he always had an ambition to have a big shop. “We were squeezed in to the original Aldershot Road building and when the opportunity came along to make the shop almost twice as big, we took it by purchasing the new shop.
Other bodyshop owners were sitting on their hands and not making any expansionary moves, but we decided that it was time to take the initiative and it worked. We have not regretted it.”
Hower says that his crash repair shop is now the biggest in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. They win a fair share of the business through on-line quoting where they score between 20-30 per cent with additional work coming from insurers including Allianz, IAG, Lumleys and RAA. The shop also does warranty work for Nissan transit vehicles that arrive by ship in SA.
This, of course, would not be possible without the five panel beaters, three spray painters and a two apprentices, their fitter/storeman and three in the office, including Natalie, and the estimators using Flexiquote. The business is a Glasurit shop and uses DeVilbiss and SATA guns.
For Hower this is a well deserved win. He made a big commitment to expansion whilst the economic climate was in decline. With every expectation that the financial situation for the industry might turn ugly, Hower took the plunge. This award is for the capacity and smart management of the business as well as for courage and good judgment.
Powell’s view
Widening your business by expanding your present shop is an effort; a plunge that you make in good economic times. Hower has decided the time’s right to take the plunge. The new panel shop and work stations are well equipped; every tradesman has his own work space in air conditioned comfort.