12 November 2020
Activate Accident Repair, part of Activate Group, is celebrating after completing more than 3000 repairs in just over 12 months and successfully opening its third body shop, in Leeds.
The milestone follows an announcement by the accident repair specialist of a £15m investment plan that will see it open 15 further sites in rapid succession, alongside the appointment of Victoria Turner to the role of divisional CEO, to lead its expansion.
Victoria Turner, Activate Accident Repair, CEO, said: “I’m joining the business at a time of significant growth as we prepare for a major expansion. With the right backing and support from our parent company, Activate Group, we remain focused on building the technology-led solution that the market and our customers need.
She added: “We’re in the advanced stages of securing our fourth site, which will be in Warrington, and expect to secure a further two sites before the end of the year. It’s all systems go as we focus on rapid expansion into 2021.”
Activate Accident Repair opened its first body shop in Birmingham in August 2019, followed by its second site in Glasgow in January 2020. Plans to open its next site in Leeds were delayed by COVID-19, with the site recently opening its doors in September 2020.
The three existing sites average a run rate of 40 vehicles a day and carry out high-quality repairs for corporate customers, routed via Activate Group’s specialist fleet and insurance divisions, sopp+sopp and Motor Repair Network.
Like other Activate Accident Repair centres, the new site in Leeds is equipped with the latest technology including ADAS reset, giving it the ability to repair all safety features for conventional and alternative fuel vehicles. It also has a fast-track repair lane for smaller repairs to help manage K2K times.
Activate Accident Repair continues to invest in Audatex PlanManager across all sites to ensure maximum workflow efficiency that enables real-time, fully transparent communications with customers and suppliers throughout the repair journey.
Simon Meredith, Head of Bodyshop Management Sales at Solera Audatex, said: “It’s great to see a company like Activate Accident Repair expanding so rapidly and investing in technology that improves the customer experience. We are proud to support them with our body shop management system, PlanManager, and look forward to working together as they open further sites.”
Activate Accident Repair is also proud to confirm the appointment of its first apprentice, Ben McTaggart, Panel Beater, at its Glasgow site. This marks the company’s commitment to developing the next generation of body shop professionals, and it has plans to significantly grow the scheme by the end of next year.
Turner commented: “Skilled operatives are at the heart of a successful body shop, so alongside our investment in the latest equipment and technology it’s important that we invest in developing people and our apprentice programme is a big part of this.”
In addition, the centres also work to a set of green repair principles. Turner explains: “We focus on practices that not only reduce environmental impact, but also provide additional cost and time benefits to our customers. We repair over replace wherever it’s safe to do so, using techniques like miracle pull on steel panels and plastic repair on bumpers.
“And we’ve invested in energy efficient technology like UVB lamps, UV primers and heat recycling in our paint ovens to reduce the time it takes to complete jobs. And we can leverage our strong green and alternative parts supply chain too, through sister company Sopp Parts.”