How Impact Repair Centres brings parts purchasing options together with PartlyRepair
Impact Repair Centres is an independent, family-run accident repair group with four sites across the Midlands. Its Birmingham team uses PartlyRepair to compare purchasing options in one place, spend less time collecting quotes and find more recycled-parts suppliers.
Customer stories
Body shop
The challenge: checking every purchasing option
Impact Repair Centres operates four accident repair sites across the Midlands. Joe Lambert, Bodyshop Manager at its Birmingham branch, has a background in parts and helped bring PartlyRepair into the business. His starting point was practical: parts gross profit was too low, and the team needed to improve its purchasing.
Comparing the options for a repair previously meant asking five or six suppliers for quotes. Doing that thoroughly involved sending emails, waiting for replies and then checking each part to decide what to buy and from whom. Under pressure, it was easy to stop searching before reaching a supplier with a better option.
A thorough comparison could take around ten minutes of quote requests, a two-to-three-hour wait for replies and another five to ten minutes comparing the options. The wait could also mean missing a supplier’s order cut-off and pushing delivery back.
Joe LambertBodyshop Manager, Birmingham · Impact Repair CentresWe use it all the time using and since using it, we've set up new suppliers that we didn't have contracts with. So it's opened our world up to new suppliers.
The solution: purchasing options in one place
PartlyRepair brings purchasing options together while the team is sourcing the job. It makes comparing suppliers easier without collecting every quote separately. Joe uses it when helping his parts colleague with orders; use across the group varies with each site’s contracts and manufacturer requirements.
More suppliers. Better purchasing opportunities.
The biggest change in supplier choice is having a view of all options available. Impact previously worked with an existing list of suppliers in that market. Through PartlyRepair, the team found more suppliers and opened new accounts meaning access to parts became more available more quickly. It also discovered Group 1’s BMW parts offering and set up an account.
For Joe, the value is in sourcing parts to get back to focusing on the repair: better purchasing can improve the margin on the repair, but it also means the car isn't sat in the bay for long periods of time while the repairers wait for the parts availability. PartlyRepair makes more options visible while the decision is being made.