Mr.Gloss
Awards 2002AAMI Autobody Repairer of the Year (Large Shop): Victoria & Tasmania
Attention to detail and innovation are the keys to this fantastic bodyshop.
Mr. Gloss was established in 1984 and led by managing director Ray Malone, the Moorabin, Melbourne shop is a by-word for presentation, workmanship and customer care.
Walk into the shop and you cannot help but be amazed by the levels of presentation. Everything is spotlessly clean, the walls and floors are a gleaming white. This level of cleanliness and sheer obsessive tidiness is possibly not matched anywhere else in Australia.
The shop is BMW, Saab and Volvo approved and consequently the facility is designed and equipped to the exacting standards of these prestige European marques.
Malone works from a simple philosophy in his bodyshop: the customer is the most important person in the business. Every one of them receives a bunch of flowers upon the return of their car. Service is second to none -- "Every car we work on, we get back three or four weeks later to check it over. We then thoroughly recheck the vehicle, coolant levels etc and then often take clients through the site so that they are aware of what's happening," he said.
Although the shop looks impressive, the layout allows it to be extremely efficient; as manager Graeme Boocock says; "prestige customers not only expect excellence of presentation, they also demand speedy Malone has recognised the need to equip his shop to the levels required by OEMs, insurers and other work providers. Towards this end, the state-of-the-art workshop is fitted with three Seetal spray booths. Between two of the booths is an overhead Spectratek infra-red rail system. The two-bay wet-floor prep area also has a similar system to gain the fastest vehicle throughput possible.
Car-O-Liner collision equipment is used throughout, including overhead spot and mig welders, free-standing spot welders, a five-metre bench with computerised measuring system, a 4.5 metre bench and six in-ground integrated pulling systems. The shop has a separate dust-free showroom for cars waiting to be collected.
In December 2000 Malone installed the Bodyshop Management System (BMS) in his shop and he has been bowled over by the efficiencies he has gained from the system. "It's absolutely brilliant. It's all about accurate reporting. Anyone who's serious about their business needs an operating system equivalent to BMS because you must be able to see exactly what's happening at all levels within the business. It allows me to be more accurate and far more organised and although I work on reasonable volumes, if I wasn't this organised I'd be ripping up money each month," he said.
Malone said you can achieve better organisation and efficiency with less administration staff, such is the benefit of the systems on his business. "The most important thing I have done in many years (apart from marrying my wife) has been to install good operating systems."
Malone has had opportunities to expand his business, perhaps taking on more shops, but has resisted. "I'd rather have my house in order for the time being than be the biggest. The bigger they are, the more difficult it is to maintain the very things that got you there in the first place."
Who: Ray Malone
What: 2100 sq m shop
25 staff
BMS, VQS
Seetal, Car-O-Liner
Glasurit
Where: Moorabbin, Melbourne
When: Refurbished, January 2001