MODERN COLLISION REPAIR CENTRE, COLOUR REFINISH EXCELLENCE
If you get a chance to chat to Nico Higgs, the founding father of the most impressive and inspiring repair centre, Modern Collision Repair Centre (MCR), in the heart of Mpumalanga, he will always wax lyrical about becoming the first body shop to adopt the latest Standoblue hydro technology when it was launched back in 2010 by Axalta.
A whole raft of new prospective practises were needed to be adopted to avoid costly re-do’s and delivery delays on vehicle repair. The quality of their spray painters’ finished work went through the roof as the new system produced outstanding quality.
“MCR has,” in Nico’s words, “pursued a policy of consistent commitment to keep pace with compliant refinish paints now in everyday use. Our long-term specialist company supplier, Intercity Paints, have kept up with the enormous explosion of new colours now being seen on many OEM vehicles in vibrant refinish colour shades.”
The repair facility, which is some 29 years old, displays the hospital hygiene look in all of its departments and is packed to the rafters with all the approved repair equipment and updated process technologies in the small tools and welding areas of repair. Training has been a major thrust for the company as well as the paint shop.
“It’s vital that your suppliers keep the business knowledgeable about changes to the processes of body repairs. That means not jumping around but sticking with key experts who have delivered over the years. Their technical specialists spend time with our production team to get things right first time and have helped us upgrade along the way to stay apace with changes.”
This is evident in their customer satisfaction scores, where they haven’t dropped below 99.3% across the board. Surely amazing achievements from a committed team.
MCR’s paint shop could be placed anywhere in the world, for its modernity. Four spraybooths and colour mixing centres with Standoblue’s broad application abilities helps to pump out some 100 repairs a month on average. Asking the expert technicians about their recent factory colouristics courses held at the state-of-the-art training centre in Midrand reveals that they are up to speed on pigment changes and excellent formula accuracy that Standoblue delivers.
Nico went on to say that once they realised that you could stop midway through a base coat application and sand out any imperfections, then squeeze in a flash primer coat – the new technology really delivered on its promises of major savings and improved paint shop efficiency.
Grant Walter, Intercity Paints director and Ewie van der Merwe, technical representative, say that the MCR paint shop management team are exceptionally professional in all that they do and remain the absolute sterling repair centre among their long-standing clients that the company service in Mpumalanga. “They understand the unique Standoblue technology so well, it is a pleasure to do business with them,” said Ewie.
Today, MCR carry all the repair credentials on factory approvals, BBBEE score cards and major insurance companies. It’s their family driven expertise that drives the company forward every day, with outstanding success and relationships with both its regular clients and longstanding suppliers’ relationships.
Story and pics by Ian Groat
