Car Repair Europe hosts first international conference

Car Repair Europe (CRE) held its first international conference for members of its European network in Holland on 28th November 2013.

Attended by body repair network representatives from Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, France and the UK, the conference was the first time the country members of CRE had come together to network and listen to CRE’s strategic and ambitious plans for European accident supply chain solutions. The conference heard about the remarkable growth of bodyshop networks like ASN in Holland which was established in 1997 and now turns over €125 million annually with over half of this amount being centrally managed. ASN’s clients now include the leading insurance, leasing, fleet and daily rental companies.

The elements which made ASN successful, including centralised account management, central purchasing, a uniform quality and pricing system, central billing, introduction of modern repair techniques and the use of a central IT system are now being applied, at the request of its international clients, right across Europe under the CRE brand name. To achieve this, CRE has been evaluating and appointing what it believes to be the most professional and service driven bodyshop networks in the countries where their clients have operations. Selsia Vehicle Accident Centres was appointed in June 2013 to represent CRE in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Selsia Marketing Director, Neil Marcus commented “Selsia is honoured and excited to have been appointed by CRE and to have been invited to attend, what will turn out to be an historic inaugural CRE conference. I have no doubt that the reasons for the success of bodyshop networks like ASN in Holland can be successfully replicated across Europe. Reducing accident repair costs, central purchasing, simplifying the supply chain, increased customer satisfaction, uniform repair techniques, quality management information and Duty of Care obligations are all international requirements and the CRE network can and will deliver on these”.

CRE Managing Director, Henk Raven commented “It was great to see our international repairers come together for our first CRE conference. We believe we’ve selected the very best managed bodyshop networks in each country and we are all looking forward to delivering coordinated accident repair solutions which will bring savings and efficiencies for our national and international customers”.

Founded in 2012, CRE now has a network of 235 sites and is already the largest independent organization for bodyshops in Europe.

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For further details on Selsia and membership please email: info@selsia-vac.co.uk.