Aami's Top Panel Shop
The Age
Thursday February 13, 1997
NEAR Dandenong there is a smash repair shop with a glass frontage and garden beds out the front, and its key staff walk around in business suits. The old saying "you could eat your lunch off the workshop floor" applies here.
Marque Body Repairs of Hallam has just been named the winner of a new national smash repair award. You could almost spray-paint a whole car in the time it takes to say it: "The AAMI/Australasian Paint & Panel National Panelbeater Of The Year award."
Marque opened its new premises last June, after moving from Princes Highway in Doveton. The entrance foyer has a spotless reception area, customer lounge and meeting and function rooms.
Work areas in the 1800-square-metre shop are defined by colored lines on the floor, each repairer has a trolley for hand and air tools and each bay has access to dust extractors. The company supplies overalls, ear muffs, boots, masks and safety goggles - and it makes sure they're worn.
The shop has two fully automatic Lowbake ovens and a paint shop with infra-red drying lamps, plus a sealed room where paint is mixed and matched. Marque puts through about 30 vehicles a week and is an approved Mercedes-Benz repairer.
But the management doesn't wear business suits all the time. On Saturday mornings they don jeans or overalls and clean the offices, workshop and the toilets.
General manager Kevin Robinson says: "We have to get the proper image over to the public. The days of being able to make do with a tin shed are over."
© 1997 The Age
