Wadle's Panel Beaters
AWARDS 2005AAMI/AP&P REPAIRER OF THE YEAR REGIONAL WINNER (SMALL SHOP) WA
Wadley's Panel Beaters
While city shops can draw the kind of work from the market that best suits them, regional and country shops must tailor their services to the local community to succeed.
That is exactly what Wadley's has done in Rockingham, which is far enough away from Perth to be virtually isolated as far as smash repairing is concerned.
Managing director, Julie Wadley, has equipped her shop to repair family sedans and four wheel drives ? and do them well. She's not searching for Mercedes and BMW.
A year ago she updated her shop's alignment with the purchase of a drive-on
Car-o-liner, Car-o-tronic measuring, and inverter welder. There is a recently installed Seetal oven and an older one that is now very useful as a prep bay or as isolation unit when aluminium repairs are required. The shop is on dry sanding and uses DuPont paint.
Like many shops around Australia, Wadley's is an Auto Quote user. But, unlike most, it has actually obtained the windows version. While bigger and richer shops wait for windows to arrive, Julie Wadley is right into using it, and says it is brilliant.
The shop employs 10, three of whom are Wadley family members. Besides Julie who manages the shop there is George, her husband, who looks after production, and Luke, her 24 year old son, who is being groomed for eventual control. There are three panel beaters (plus one apprentice), two painters, an estimator and a receptionist. This well balanced team is tyWadley's works for most of the local insurers including HBF, RAC and the IAG brands. It is not bothered by the challenges of online tendering since it is out of the WRM area. But Wadley is adamant that her shop 'won't work for nothing'. She has a strong views on damaged wheels being given cosmetic repair and put back on the car when they could have hairline fractures that could lead to accidents. She advocates either replacement or, if the insurer insists on repair, they should be x-rayed. As a member of the RAC council she adds her voice to safety issues like this and is part of a push to allow better quality repairs instead of cutting corners.
Being out of the city, Wadley's has the luxury of plenty of room for parking or future expansion. It sits in an industrial estate and proudly displays not only its own name but the names of key equipment it uses.
POWELL'S COMMENT
For an isolated area this shop is well in touch with technology. It services its customers with good quality work and has become a part of the local community where repeat business means survival.