Toronto, Ontario -- From November 24 to 26, Driven Brands hosted 17 Canadian MSO operators at its Restore the Star event in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
The meeting gave the owners, who together operate 90 facilities within the Driven Brands network, the chance to compare approaches, hear from key industry partners and look ahead at how automation will change claims and production work.
According to David Foster, senior vice-president of operations and development at CARSTAR Canada, these twice-yearly sessions help operators speak openly about their businesses. "They talk through operational strategies with us and with each other... Every store isn’t good at everything, but by working together, they can learn about how other shops tackle similar problems."
“We look at labour and paint materials and where we can improve,” he says. That led to a wider discussion about reducing sublets. “A lot of the talk was about keeping calibration and mechanical work inside the store,” he says.
The event included presentations from several high-profile industry figures, including Flavio Battilana from AkzoNobel, Kevin Nicol from Toyota and Paul Hicks from TD Insurance.
Foster says AkzoNobel offered a clear look at how automation is entering both claims and production. “Akzo talked about AI, automation and even robot painters,” he says. “It made people think about where things are going.”
Hicks outlined how TD expects claims handling to evolve.
“He talked about what claims flow management could look like in three to five years,” Foster says. “It wasn’t surprising, but it was useful to hear the insurer’s position. They expect AI to be part of it -- as we all do, too.”
