Fix Auto Northern Beaches in New South Wales has become the first Australian Fix Network member to add a Novus Glass franchise to its operation, replicating a business model popular in Canada where more than 50 dual Fix Network / Novus Glass branded businesses operate.
Jason Walsh, owner of Fix Auto Northern Beaches, said the decision to add Novus Glass was easy, as the capital cost was more than covered by sub-let savings. “Having bedded in the Fix Auto model into my business, I enquired about Novus Glass and was blown away by the value proposition from the team. “The support, training, systems and marketing, not to mention access to work through their central team, is amazing,” Walsh said.
Stuart Faid, head of Fix Network’s businesses in Asia and Australia, said it made sense for members to join the two complimentary Fix Network brands. “What starts as revenue retention in the panel business soon becomes a scalable and very profitable business in its own right,” he said.
“The rapidly changing landscape in the auto-glass sector has caught the attention of many adjunct businesses and the panel industry is one of those. The growing complexity of replacing glass, calibrating vehicles and, of course, the costs associated with doing so are all contributing factors to the sense of opportunity in this space.
“We have a number of our shops providing sizeable sub-let values to independent businesses and when margins are suppressed in our everyday panel work, the ability to bring the glass work in house and then exploit the wider insurance, fleet and retail opportunities is too good an opportunity to miss.”
Novus said its unique repair technology and tools allow it to achieve market leading repair targets.
“Nobody can get close to our numbers with over 30 per cent repair ratio for our customers in Australia and even higher in our North American business,” Faid added. “Whilst glass costs continue to rise, technology gets more complex and calibrations remain a costly but mandatory requirement on all replacements, the industry is looking to us to transform their rising claims costs”.