Professional bodyshop makes impact

With the help of Sydney Mitchell, the Staff and Directors of Impact Repair Centre's HQ site in Birmingham are looking forward to a fresh start in 2011. It will be the first full year for the business to take advantage of the investment that has gone into the fully refurbished paint and body repair facility which caters for major insurance companies and vehicle fleet operators.

The total refurbishment costing £1.5 million was forced on the business following an internal fire at their Kings Norton bodyshop at the end of 2009. Extensive smoke damage from the fire deemed much of the building and original equipment beyond use and with the great support of their Insurers Impact set out a strategy to minimise the impending loss and divert work-in-progress to the other branches in the group and keep to repair schedules promised to customers.

The professionals called in by Impact's insurers progressively uncovered less immediately visible damage that had been caused by the smoke and ordered the scrapping and environmentally safe disposal of substantial amounts of specialist body repair equipment. It was to be 10 months before the specialist contractors handed the repair facility back to the business.

In those intervening months the flexible employees of Impact Birmingham were deployed to boost production at the other three Impact branches located at Redditch, Bromsgrove and Warwick.

During that time Tony Lowe the MD of Impact Repair Centre Ltd obtained professional advice from the company's solicitors Sydney Mitchell. Advice was sought during numerous meetings both in the city office in Birmingham and in the Solihull office. Georgina Walsh of Sydney Mitchell is seen here congratulating Tony on the successful start up.

Georgina is a consultant solicitor based in Sydney Mitchell's Solihull office on the Stratford Road. She looks after the business and personal interests of many Midlands based entrepreneurs as well as dealing with the day today requirements of local families, whatever their requirements. Specialist litigation services are also available to Georgina's clients through the city office in central Birmingham.

Tony Lowe said, "We have turned a negative into a real positive."　Lowe continued,

"thanks to the magnificent support of our loyal staff, customers, suppliers and the integrity of our insurers and professional advisers, we have been able to re-establish our position as the best equipped bodyshop in the area. During the closure we have lost some customers who contractually had to have their vehicles repaired within a certain postcode catchment area but we are now out to win them back as well as take on new professional clients. Motorists have a choice as to where their vehicle goes for repair. It is not simply an insurers decision. Many private individuals choose Impact ahead of their insurers nomination."

For more information on Impact Repair Centre, visit their website www.impactrepaircentre.co.uk