Selsia and CRE sign European agreement

Selsia and CRE have signed an agreement which sees Selsia Vehicle Accident Centres becoming the UK National Partner for Car Repair Europe (CRE).

CRE was created in The Netherlands out of the ASN bodyshop franchise organisation, one of only four managed bodyshop networks which account for 60% of all crash repairs in the Benelux countries.  Launched in 1997, ASN quickly established itself with its clients for quality, flexibility and uniformity. Since 2001, the network grew its accident repair business with the major leasing, insurance and daily rental companies as well as a growing portfolio of fleet clients. Today, ASN turns over €125 million with over half of this amount being centrally managed. The driving factors in its growth were due to it offering its clients centralised contact, central purchasing, a uniform quality system, development of modern repair techniques and the development of a central IT system. Due to repair cost savings, uniformity of service levels and availability of essential repair management information, in 2012 ASN were asked by their clients to build an international bodyshop network organisation by connecting established national groups in other European countries where their clients also have operations. The idea was to replicate the high service levels in the other countries and this is how CRE was created. The two directors of ASN, Henk Raven and Peter Lammerts, appointed a new managing director, René Louter, to run the Dutch ASN organisation and this has enabled Henk and Peter to focus on establishing CRE in in Europe. Within three years, CRE will have a strong presence and be active in at least 6 countries and with the intention of being the prefered supplier for large international work providers.

CRE Managing Director, Henk Raven commented “ for an insurer, only 56% of the cost of repairing a vehicle is what the bodyshop charges and around 44% is attributable to administration and overheads. Fleet, leasing and daily rental companies are also making substantial savings by directing repairs through professionally managed bodyshop networks like ASN. At CRE, we will be bringing these savings to work provider clients by replicating our model across Europe. We have been watching Selsia Vehicle Accident Centres establish and grow its business in the UK in a similar fashion as ASN did in Holland. Their approach to running a professionally managed bodyshop network convinced us to  appoint them as the CRE National Partner for the UK and Republic of Ireland and we are very excited to be working with the Selsia team and their professional repairers.”

Selsia Marketing Director, Neil Marcus commented “the CRE initiative has come at a very exciting time in Selsia’s development. We have been working with Henk and Peter for a couple of years and observed the workings of the Dutch repair industry and this has enabled us to develop a similar model for the UK. Accident repair supply chain decisions by some international fleet, leasing and insurance companies will be taken at European level and CRE will be best placed to offer cross border solutions. We are delighted to be working with such an innovative and forward looking international organisation. This is a real first for the UK”.

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

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