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Investing in flexibility for an efficient workshop

Whether it is building a business from scratch or growing an established enterprise, industry relationships are vital.  When it comes to sophisticated workshop equipment, the support they offer can make the difference between failure and thriving.

A major installation demonstrates how a partnership between Sandersons Prestige Accident Repair Centre and the SAPE Group has yielded results.

For Lincoln Cridland the abrupt shift to Queensland in the middle of COVID brought a raft of challenges and opportunities. It was while looking for work in the industry that he was offered the opportunity to takeover an established repair business.

“As far as owning an actual panel shop, now it was the first time I’d done it, but I’ve been around the industry,” he says after decades working in the collision repair sector.

“I was named after a car, my grandfather was a coach builder and same with my dad, We were forever building motorbikes and hot rods at home. As a kid, I pretty much grew up in the shed, welding things and building things and doing all sorts of stuff. Owning a business was just a natural progression.”

Images: Sandersons Prestige Accident Repair Centre

If the step to ownership on the Gold Coast was something of a leap of faith for Cridland, he brought with him this generational passion for repairs and a dedication to doing things better.

“It was just familiar territory, because I’d run some pretty big shops in Melbourne successfully. But I guess the hardest part was I didn’t know anyone on the Gold Coast. I had no contacts whatsoever.”

The value of relationships really came to the fore in this period, both with those he took over from the former owner of Sandersons and the industry contacts he retained from past roles. One of the most important of these was a developing relationship with the SAPE Group.

Partners in investment

SAPE became particularly important when Cridland began to consider investing in the business to give it more capacity and flexibility. Part of this expansion involved taking over an adjoining space and equipping it with the lifting and measuring equipment that would enable them to do structural repairs and a wider range of vehicles.

Ensuring they had the right equipment was a crucial part of this journey. Initially it involved some trial and error with benches that Cridland describes as “not cutting the mustard”. But it was the support of SAPE and their Group Equipment Manager Beau Knowles that ensured they ended up with the Spanesi 106.

‘I love it,” Cridland says of the installation.

“They gave us full credit, and they put that towards this new 106 bench, and I am absolutely rapt with it.

“The 106s are designed for much larger vehicles, but actually for the floor space it takes up and the pulling tower that it utilises, it is actually a smaller unit. But at the same time we can put much larger vehicles on it. The arm is detachable, and you can put the pulling arm in all different positions around the bench. That was a win for me.”

Flexibility and adaptability

He says this flexibility is enhanced by the equipment that works with the Spanesi 106 bench.

“SAPE really came to the party with a lot of accessories. We ended up with 4WD clamps, the Euro clamps; it’s got everything.”

This has given Sandersons Prestige Accident Repair Centre as a business the confidence to take on a wider variety of repair work.

“We’re fully equipped to do anything they throw at us now,” Cridland says.

“If a job presents itself, you’re confident to know that you can tackle a specific job. If a job needs aligning or a fair amount of pulling power, we have the capacity to do it.”

The investment at Sandersons Prestige Accident Repair Centre extends to a new booth to cater for bigger vehicles, measuring eight and a half meters long and three meters high.  This has enabled them to take on repairs ranging from larger utes and US style ‘pick-up’ trucks’ as they become more popular in Australia.

However, the flexibility of the set-up also allows them to use the equipment on smaller cars ensuring the investment keeps returning to the business.

“But for me, it’s just investing in the future. It’s not something that is ever going to go to waste. If we have the capability to do it today, I thought, let’s do it today.”

And the word of mouth about Sandersons about this flexibility and capability is spreading, as customers see and hear what the workshop is capable of.

“it just opens up other avenues,” he says. “When a job presents itself in the driveway out front or over a phone call or photos from an insurance company or whatever it may be, we can do it with what we’ve got, and we don’t have to second guess anymore.”

Pride in the Business

Another part of the satisfaction from the installation is how it makes Cridland feel about having an up-to date, fully equipped workshop that looks professional and modern.

“We’re really big on presentation here. I absolutely hate it when I see dust and parts and bits of tape stuck to the floor.  Having this set up, it is reassuring.”

Cridland says during this investment, the back-up support of SAPE was critical; particularly the relationships he developed with SAPE’s Beau Knowles.

“You need reliable people that are going to give you the right information,” Cridland says.

“We hummed and agh’ed over certain machines, and I even looked at the bigger machine, but it wasn’t really necessary.

“All this time, Beau was honest in his opinions and his approach. He went over and above my expectations of what was going to be offered. He actually went further, and he gave us more than I anticipate for what we invested.”

Support when you need it

Cridland says any busy workshop owner appreciates the honesty and respect of company representatives who work with a business to get the best outcomes.

“Beau was very reasonable in this approach. He’s one of those down-to-earth guys, but he’s not pushy.”

For Cridland and his partner Carmen, the installation and the Spanesi 106 bench were also a cumulative investment in the business to ensure they were set up for future growth.

“I stopped recently, and I said, we have to give ourselves a pat on the back here. We came to Queensland with no jobs, and we took on a shop unexpectedly and now we’ve got triple the staff. We took on two staff members when we bought the shop and there’s 10 of us here now. We have got the business set up to where we want it.

“We’re quite happy with the size that we are at; It’s very manageable. It’s profitable, and we finally ticked off that last piece of the puzzle in the last of the big-ticket equipment items we needed.”

Cridland says while they will continue to refine details and address any issues, it was a credit to the hard work and all the support of relationships like that they enjoy with SAPE that had brought them to this point in their business journey.

“Now the processes and procedures are in place to make it all tick along smoothly. We need to give ourselves a pat on the back, because hopefully within the next few months, we’ll be able to just turn up and actually just get the work done.”

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