9 April 2020
Vizion Network, driven by the efforts of Chris McKie and his team have worked tirelessly and selflessly to assist UK body repairers in the current Covid-19 climate.
Vizion has now announced a series of stimulus initiatives, not only to assist its own network of repairers, but the market as a whole.
Supported by other industry leaders, Vizion has acted because it recognises that the sector needs immediate support and that “immediate relief in the form of a brief payment holiday from vendors, while helpful, will only provide short-term financial breathing room”.
Chris McKie, Vizion managing director, said: “There have been extensive talks daily between insurers, Vizion and Audatex to look at the vast complexities of the current situation and the potential ongoing impact it will have on our operations in the months to come. Working together we have come up with a strategic and thoughtful approach to support the industry, through activities including digital invoicing, speeding up payouts on total loss vehicles and the like.
“Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Hastings, Markerstudy, NFU Mutual, Zurich and a number of other customers have been particularly active in helping us inject large sums back into the network to support financial stability of our market.
“I could not be prouder of how some in the industry have embraced this thinking. It would be easy to just kick the can down the road and worry about the debt later, but we have defined a well thought out multi-party strategy that we can immediately implement that really helps.”
Meanwhile, Audatex and Vizion are providing ongoing assistance via a tangible and sustainable platform to help repairers trade and recover from this unexpected situation.
David Shepherd, regional managing director, Solera Audatex, said: “We recognise the toll that Covid-19 is taking on many shops in our industry and we are doing what we can to lessen the financial impact of this pandemic, both now and into the future.”