Walker's-Silver's
AAMI/AP&P Autobody Repairer of the YearWalker Bros. Crash Repairs: Winner
A controversial figure to some in Adelaide, John Walker nevertheless has an impressive grasp of what it takes to make money in the crash repair industry. Take a look at these figures: the shop employs two panel beaters, two apprentice panel beaters (fourth and second years), one spray painter and two apprentice painters (second and first years) along with an office manager and director John Walker. Walker claims this staff of 10 produces the same turnover now as 18 employees (numbering less apprentices) did two years ago. Walker also claims to pay the highest wages in South Australia (performance-based pay of $70,000-plus for panel beaters and even estimators) and says his shop's parts as a percentage of total repair costs are 27 per cent against a national average of between 50 and 55 per cent. He claims he can increase volume by 40 per cent with his existing resources and double volume with only two extra employees. This year has been his most profitable in 26 years of trading, he says.
Walker is an enthusiastic advocate of the Bodyshop Management System, which he has been using for almost three years. Perhaps the key reason Walker is seen as outspoken by some quarters of the industry is the fact that he openly admits to admiring or at least agreeing with the rationale behind insurer direct repair programs (DRPs).
" DRPs are the future and I find this quite exciting. Volume in return for discount is a pretty sound business practice as far as I'm concerned," he says. "It is the 'pizza syndrome' -- the price of pizza has not gone up in 20 years and a lot of corner pizza shops have gone but the remaining chains are still doing well despite no price rise. You have got to do volume for discount."
The first to admit his shop is not a 'glamour shop' Walker says he does not believe in overcapitalising on the present site. "I satisfy vehicle owners and the insurers and so to them I am already a glamour customer because I am cost-effective."
Who: John Walker
What: 8-900 paid hours/week
10 staff
Spies Hecker, BMS
Where: Prospect, Adelaide
When: Since 1975
Silver's Motor Body Repairs: Winner
Since July last year, when judges visited Silver's Motor Body Repairs, Tony Audino and his management team have added a new reception area to the shop and are now planning to extend the modern fascia and enclose a laneway for undercover quoting. "There's always something to do," says Audino. Silver's caters to predominantly prestige brands and is the only Landrover approved shop in South Australia. Leading luxury marque dealerships Prestige Walkerville and Prestige Formula direct a large proportion of work to the well-presented facility.
What was the old office and reception area is now the spare parts office and the new office allows management to better monitor the progress of the shop. "We have worked on creating a new layout for the shop which has improved our efficiency no end," says Audino.
Cars are able to flow freely around the workshop with very little bottlenecks and with the covering of the laneway between the paint and panel shops, efficiency will be upgraded even further.
Who: Tony & Joyce Audino, Joe Rugari
What: 15 employees
30 cars repaired/week
Globajig, Spies Hecker
Festo, Prinz
Where: Windsor Gardens, Adelaide
When: Since 1983