AkzoNobel and L&I continue momentum
AkzoNobel and L&I Eaton ARC Ltd’s partnership continues and has seen the business grow from a single accident repair centre to nine in just seven years.
Its ninth site, which relocated to larger premises in April 2017 in Edinburgh, includes state-of-the-art facilities offering multi-material repair and using the latest technology. AkzoNobel provides the advice, business support, Sikkens products and Colorvation digital approach.
Graeme Richardson, L&I Eaton ARC Ltd Edinburgh site manager, said, ‘The days of dark and dingy repair environments are over. Here we see a glimpse of the future, in which accident repair centres become an aspirational place for our customers and staff.
‘When you step into our premises, you feel like you’re in the reception of a first class hotel not an accident repair centre.’
The new Edinburgh repair centre boasts around 560sqm of office and customer area, along with 3,500sqm of work space equipped with four USI Italia spraybooths. This, it claims, comfortably lends itself to flexible deployment of different work streams and offers scope for introduction of new processes. A triage system will also allow customers to benefit from fast turnaround times of UV technology, where appropriate.
L&I Eaton ARC Group, operations manager, Stephen Fells said, ‘AkzoNobel has played a key role in helping us to become fully digital, to adopt other technological advances and to maximise the efficiency of our processes.’
Jon Amor, AkzoNobel’s vehicle refinishes manager for UK and Ireland, said, ‘L&I Eaton ARC offers a perfect illustration of how to make repair centres fit for the future.
‘Our two-way partnership with L&I Eaton ARC shows the way forward to developing sustainable collision repair businesses, and we would be delighted to hear from other potential partners in the industry.’
