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| A Potted History of ChipsAdelaide |
How We Began .....
ChipsAdelaide began as a ChipsAway franchise in Australia in 1996. In late 2001 two of the Adelaide based ChipsAway businesses merged to form ChipsAway Adelaide, creating the largest non-franchised mobile paint restoration company in South Australia. Steady growth was achieved from that time to consolidate the company's position as the leader in the local marketplace.
In early 2006 ChipsAway International applied for registration of the ChipsAway trademark (which we had been using unopposed since the liquidation of our orginal Master Franchisor in 1998). An agreement was eventually reached in early 2008 for ownership of the ChipsAway trademark to transfer back to ChipsAway International, and ChipsAway Adelaide became simply ChipsAdelaide.
ChipsAdelaide has not been associated in any way with ChipsAway International since early 1999.
Since separating from the franchise organisation in 1998, ChipsAdelaide continually refined and developed its repair practices and paint system in pursuit of the highest standards achievable in the mobile automotive paint repair field. ChipsAdelaide developed a solid reputation throughout the motor vehicle industry for quality and service, and had a large and loyal trade and retail customer base which generated substantial repeat and referral business.
.......What We Became.....
By 2007 ChipsAdelaide dominated the mobile automotive paint repair industry in Adelaide. Its technicians were all fully qualified spray painters and had many years experience in the automotive painting industry. Between them they had probably repaired just about every model and age of car there is. From early model Fords and Holdens to the latest Mercedes, Porsches and Ferraris, to Mack trucks and Greyhound coaches, to motorcycles and jet-skis and everything in between - even repairing light aircraft, helicopters and 15 metre yachts - therefore you could be confident when you got ChipsAdelaide to fix your vehicle that its technicians had the skills and experience to provide a perfect repair.
Many well-known new and used car retailers, both prestige and general ( see Testimonials) utilised ChipsAdelaide services over the past 14 years. The company was also the repairer of choice for a number of new car dealerships in South Australia, as unlike many of the smaller and less experienced mobile automotive paint repairers, with the considerable accumulated experience in this niche industry our skills, processes and techniques enabled us to accurately replicate the factory finish to provide an invisible repair. Total confidence in the quality of the repair processes facilitated a lifetime warranty on all repairs (except rust repairs) - something unique in this niche industry.
In 2007-08 ChipsAdelaide had up to 16 fully equipped mobile workshops on the road. The company was able to deliver high quality paint and panel repairs and a quick response to the new and used car trade, corporate and fleet managers, and retail customers throughout the greater Adelaide metropolitan area, from Gawler down to Victor Harbour. ChipsAdelaide technicians were extremely well-paid with above award base pay and generous bonuses for high productivity.
...... And Now.....
In late 2008, due to the administrative workload involved in recording the large number of jobs completed each week (something like 10,000 a year) it was decided to move away from paper-based systems and make a substantial investment in technology. The company introduced a system called REACH, which utilised a dedicated server and hand-held computers (Motorola MC35 PDAs) to allocate work, create quotes, and record all essential details for each electronically generated invoice. The invoices were sent automatically via email to the customer's email address. No more lost or incorrectly completed invoices! Mandatory fields ensured each client's vehicle was recorded along with details of exactly what work was carried out. Reporting was instantaneous and REACH 'talked' directly to MYOB, thus obviating the requirement for tedious manual data entry.
The PDAs also had GPS tracking installed to keep track of the devices - at over $1200 each, they were a bit more than just a mobile phone. And sadly, there lay the sting in the tail - the majority of ChipsAdelaide's erstwhile loyal and trusted technicians were suddenly extremely unhappy about the fact that now they were 'visible' on an hour by hour basis. It became abundantly clear that they did not want to be accountable to their employer for the way they spent their time between 8.30 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday. 10 technicians left within 10 months (several quit with no notice at all), and a further 7 new recruits lasted less than 6 months each as perhaps they too realised that they were unable to do the nice little cash jobs on the side that had made working for Chips Adelaide the most lucrative gig in town for a spray painter. A comparison of the materials consumed by these technicians revealed that some were putting anywhere between $500 and $1000 per week cash into their own pockets - on top of their already generous pay - using the company van, company materials, and during company time. Small wonder they fought the introduction of the REACH system.
To further rub salt into the wound, despite all of them having happily signed an employment contract which incorporated a restraint clause prohibiting them from soliciting work from trade clients of the company after they ceased employment, most of them did just that - taking over the trade clients that we had invested years of service in. There is little doubt that most of them would not have been able to survive on their own if they had had to generate work and cultivate trade clients off their own bat to start with, like I did - so they just stole the cashflow which rightfully belonged to the company. Unfortunately neither the legal system nor the industrial relations system gave us any confidence in pursuing legal recourse for this breach of contract.
It became clear that it was futile trying to rebuild the business with new employees, as it seems there are just not enough honest, hard-working, technically competent spray painters available in SA who are capable of working unsupervised in the mobile industry. By the end of 2009, the company was down to myself and two employees - one of whom was the first technician I ever employed.
So, after spending more than 14 years growing the business, it collapsed all the way back to just me - the classic one-man-in-a-van show. I got to write a $750,000 investment down to zero - my ex-employees take my goodwill for free, and leave me with a $100,000 debt by way of thanks ......
Thankfully, I have more skills than just spray-painting, and there's a new business opportunity calling, so I'm moving on ....
| BUT I WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN STILL GET A GOOD TECHNICIAN TO LOOK AFTER YOU |
SO - if after reading this tale of woe you still want to get some repair work done, and want to have the assurance of having that work carried out by a technician whose quality of work is endorsed by his ex-employer, please feel free to contact one of the businesses listed on the 'Contact Us' page.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
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This picture has nothing to do with Chips Adelaide.
It's my Harley-Davidson ElectraGlide doing the ton through Death Valley, USA.
The red Ultra to the left has just overtaken me ........ |
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