Toronto, Ontario — Though trying to predict the future is a surefire way to leave yourself in disbelief, one thing can be said with absolute certainty in the collision repair industry—change is arriving with increasing speed and impact. To smooth the bumpy road ahead, here are some tactics shared by some of the industry’s leading executives.
Dave Gunderson, vice president of 3M’s automotive aftermarket division
“These are exciting times. Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors said that there will be more disruption in the car business in the next five years than in the last 50. I have been in the industry for over 30 years and the amount of change in the technology that goes into vehicles is rapidly evolving. This can be overwhelming, but I see it as an opportunity. The technology, in terms of diagnostics and calibration—there is all this new technology that is coming into the body shop, so I think it is a wonderful time to be in this business. The reality is, the number of repairs is going down but the cost of repair is going up, so again, I see it as an opportunity to completely understand this new technology in vehicles, and to see how we can repair it in a more productive and lower-cost way.”
Erik Spitznagel, CEO of Dent Fix
“It is a very important business, the auto industry as a whole. You have big Wall Street capital firms now buying into the industry. We are seeing a lot of consolidation. People are beginning to realize that, while you can still operate as a Mom-and-Pop shop, you are leaving yourself to being a very specialized centre. The turn-and-burn of today is collision repair which requires consistency and speed in order to maintain profitability because everybody is getting squeezed on their profit margins across the board. So getting more efficient, getting leaner and getting your business practices in order is vital to compete in today’s world.”
John Turner, general manager of SATA Canada
“I think what you are going to see is that with the amount of amalgamation that we have in Canada with MSOs, with jobbers and warehouse distributors that we are in for a very exciting year for 2020. I see it continuing with even more amalgamation of different companies which is going to make it a very interesting year.”
Mark Greenberg, vice president of Wedge Clamp
“All vehicles should be repaired to OEM specifications, period. As far as what equipment is used you certainly have to have a four-point anchoring system to repair a car properly. If you’re using chains or anchoring incorrectly, although you may be repairing damage in one spot, you could be creating damage elsewhere. If the OEMs expect—and I know that they do—that vehicles are repaired with equipment that meets particular capabilities, such as four-point anchoring and electronic three-dimensional measuring, then that’s what has to be done.”
