Profile

This is just one of the interesting company profiles appearing in the current issue of BODY Magazine. If you would like to read the other articles, please contact us for a complimentary copy available to anyone who takes out a 12 month subscription. Email:body@vbra.co.uk

Paint Technics is a young business, based in Lincoln, and set up by ‘not so young’, experienced SMART repairer Matt Pask. Matt is passionate about the sector and aims to help improve public awareness of the sector and the skill levels and expertise within it.

‘The sector has changed quite dramatically in the last few years. The franchise model of 10 years ago no longer exists. With the move into mainstream insurance work, there is now demand for a different type of franchise model, one that presents a fully professional face across the nation’.

This won’t suit everyone working in the sector – there are many constraints on franchisees, who have to conform to all the terms and conditions set by the franchisor. This can include set levels of product/equipment purchase and this is sometimes a step too far for the entrepreneurial and independent spirit of the mobile technician. Recognising this is easy.

The Challenge of Unity
What is harder is trying to find a way to bring together the different ends of the spectrum and present a united, professional face to the general public who has little understanding of the technical differences between small-medium area repairs and repairs that involve entire panels.

This is a challenge that doesn’t seem to daunt Matt. As a member of the VBRA’s new SMART Repair Council he feels that the answer is not yet apparent. There’s a lot of hard talking and hammering out of ideas about standards and training still to be done.

Building Third Business
In the meantime, he is busy building his own business – for the third time. Matt started in the sector as a franchisee; he built his territory into a good solid business quite quickly and then sold it on as he found his taste for ‘independence’ grew (largely due to his love of motorbikes, which he was not able to work on as a franchisee).

Based in the south east of England, and using the marketing skills he’d gained, Matt then established his own branded smart repair business, again building it from a single van to three vans. At that time, the London marketplace was hectic but also fraught with haggles over price. Interestingly one of the most problematic customers was a ‘trade’ customer, a dealership who was forever slow with payment. It came to a head however Matt pragmatically salvaged the situation by training the dealers’ own valeting staff to carry out SMART repairs.

It takes a unique character to find opportunity in adversity! A few years down the line, Matt and wife Cheryl decided they’d really prefer to bring their children up in Lincolnshire, the region in which they’d grown up. So once more Matt sold his business and they upped sticks.

Regional Differences
This move presented its own challenges. ‘Motorists in the London area were quite familiar with the concept of SMART repairs’, explains Matt. ‘Lincoln people were not. So the service had to be explained and marketed in quite a different way. The pace of life is a little slower too – you have to accept differences and use them as best you can’.

That was March 2006 and today the business is thriving. As well as a van, Paint Technics operates from a 2500 sq ft workshop, employing 4 people. As well as offering SMART repairs to the general public, Matt is using his experience and skills as a trainer. Over the last 3 years he’s skilled up 65 technicians who’ve gone away to run their own independent businesses all over the UK.

But the experience he had training those independents led him to believe that there was a need for a ‘soft’ franchise model. ‘It makes sense for us to use our experience to provide ongoing support – with marketing and accounts as well as product and equipment. Many of the people attracted to work in the sector have no automotive background. That’s perfectly acceptable but this builds a demand for ongoing support’.

To that end Matt and his first franchisee are now working hard proving that it can be done. Third time lucky? More a matter of experience, expertise, hard work, and perseverance.