FEATURE PANEL SHOP REFINISHER
10
T H E B O D Y R E PA I R S H O P
Return to
spender Following a major investment in his business, Mick Caruso made the welcome discovery that the return on investment came with far more than just a shiny new workshop.
I
n the year 2000, when Mick Caruso and his wife Sandy established The Body Repair Shop, it was a two-man operation in a tiny 360m² workshop doing mostly fleet work. As time went on and the business began doing insurance work, Mick estimates that it grew at an impressive rate of up to 30 percent per year. However, by around 2017, he felt it had reached its limits in its original workspace.
“We had about 2500m² of space but it was spread across three different buildings. It got to the point where we had done everything we could with the old workshops and I was ‘over it’, so we built an additional brand new building on the same site and did it exactly the way I think it should be done. If we had not made the investment I probably would not still be in the business. The biggest benefit is time for myself. In the past I was working ‘in’ the business during the day and trying to work ‘on’ the business after hours. Now I can do things I enjoy doing on weekends and even take days off, if I want to.” Situated in the Adelaide suburb of Salisbury Plains, the overall 20,000m² property is owned by the Caruso Family Trust and Mick reckons this is a win / win
because the trust gets the best possible tenant – The Body Repair Shop! A large proportion of the increased rental cost has also been offset by installing a huge 100kW solar electric system on the roof. Mick project-managed the construction of the business’ spectacular new premises with a design that incorporated a lot of experience, along with research from a variety of sources. “The most important factor was flow. The old workshop had a type of flow but there were always little roadblocks and hinderances from using existing buildings. I got lots of different input for the new layout. For example, from going to PPG MVP Business Solutions seminars over the years where I listened closely and picked up lots of pointers. Firstly, the flow in the new workshop is exactly what you dream of. Jobs do a full loop, the floor is fully marked out for vehicles, equipment, etc. and each technician has their own space and they are generous spaces. As each vehicle enters it’s filmed from five different angles and there are over 40 cameras throughout the premises. It lets us follow the car from the time it arrives, right through the repair process, to the point where the customer picks it up.” The light filled reception area is both welcoming and efficient at dealing with customers, while four spacious, undercover
