Clark & Kent are industry leaders for a good reason

IN AN AGE WHERE ANYONE WITH A WORKSHOP CAN BE A PANEL BEATER,THERE LIES A GEM OF QUALITY INTHIS OPERATION,WRITES

NOT many companies can claim to have repaired everything from oxwagons to sports cars and even electrically powered vehicles, but, thanks to ongoing changes in the motor industry, Congella-based

Clark & Kent can do that.

The company, which repairs around 250 light motor vehicles and 40 commercial vehicles each month, specialises in panel beating, spray painting and related repairs. It has a staff of 80 and has built up a solid reputation and on-time delivery, integral to securing repeat business in both the commercial and private markets.

But even back in the day, when it was a two-man operation, this wasn’t a business for the faint-hearted.

The “Kent” who lent his name to the business was shipwrecked twice en route to Durban where he launched the business in 1897. He was a blacksmith. His partner, “Clark” was apparently the entrepreneur.

The present day owners of the business have worked hard to find out everything they could about its origins.

Initially, Clark & Kent built carts and oxwagons and counted the military and sugar industry as

SHIRLEY LE GUERN

customers. By 1900, the business had premises in Brickhill Road.

It went on to repair vehicles, as the combustion engine became the technology of the day and ultimately began to build buses.

After World War 2, the business relocated to a portion of its current workshop in Sydney Road.

“As a very small boy, I remember coming here. They were still making buses in those days and they had big electric motors that drove overhead wheels that used to operate all the machinery.

“Most of the stuff was made of wood. The buses that we used to build were made with wooden frames and steel cladding,” remembers managing director, Craig Campbell-gillies.

His father, Colin, bought the business in 1976 and still regularly drops by, despite being retired.

He ran three Mobil service stations. Back in those days, the properties were owned by the oil company and the service station owners simply operated them.

When his request to expand his business was turned down by the oil company, he threatened to quit.

When the oil company refused to budge, he made good on his promise and began shopping around for another company.

By that stage, Clark & Kent was owned by Durban Glassworks – which was looking to offload a noncore asset.

It was only after finishing his schooling, and gaining some work experience elsewhere, that Craig Campbell-gillies joined the family business. His brother, Ian, was running the commercial side of the company.

“My old man asked me to please come and help him run the passenger side of things. So I did, even though I knew nothing about the business,” he remembers.

Over the years, he has built Clark & Kent into an operation that is factory approved for most makes of passenger and commercial vehicles, and is an approved repairer for most insurance companies.

“These kinds of businesses have to be very closely managed. It’s not something that is easy to do from afar. You need to be very close to your customers and staff. There are big corporate run companies that are panel beating businesses. But, although we try and model ourselves on a bigger corporate image, we still remain very much a family run business.”

High technical standards also help a business such as this to stand out from the crowd, he believes.

In Durban alone, there are more than 300 panel beaters. Barriers to entry are low and anyone with a workshop can call himself a panel beater.

“We feel it is vital to be continually trained on new vehicle models in order to be able to offer our customers peace of mind that their vehicles are being restored to pre-accident condition.

“We are a major structural repairer, which offers a guarantee of a minimum of three years on the paintwork and we uphold all manufacturers warranties with a minimum of a year.”

But this comes at a price, and Campbell-gillies says they have invested millions in both equipment and training.

That’s because there’s far more to repairing the high tech vehicles of today than simply banging out a few dents.

“When a car has been involved in an accident, the first thing we do is plug it into a computer. You can’t just disconnect batteries these days. You have to wind down the computers and switch them off before you do any metal work,” he explains.

The challenges faced by panel beaters also include substantial amounts of corruption within the industry, intense competition for a shrinking market and downward pressure on prices from insurance companies, despite ever escalating operational expenses in the form of electricity tariffs and imported spare parts.

One of the biggest problems is that, despite there being more cars on the roads these days, there are not necessarily more insured motorists.

The first thing that out-ofpocket vehicle owners cut back on is insurance, to the point where just 30% of vehicles on our roads are covered.

This not only means that insurance companies are competing to insure just three out of ten cars, but also bearing the burden of more repairs. Car owners are no longer required to have third party insurance and these costs are instead borne by the insured.

As a result, he concedes that insurance companies need to “be as lean as they can” even though this means putting more and more pressure on panel beaters to work at often unsustainable rates. Whereas annual increases paid to panel beaters are slightly below or equal to inflation, actual overheads are usually growing at far higher rates.

“If you don’t have a client base, you’re dead. So we focus really hard on our customers, because if they insist on coming here rather than to any other panel beater, I’ve got a steady stream of business.

“We also have an open door policy with our clients. They are welcome to come and have a look at their repairs at any time. You can come and see anything you want to within this business. We have nothing to hide,” he says.