There was a good turnout at the IMI Leinster Members Association special presentation held at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Dublin. Those attending heard two interesting addresses from IMI CEO Steve Nash and industry training expert Richard Owen, which were followed by an open discussion about the future of the industry.

Richard Owen of AIT Training and Development spoke about how despite new car sales being significantly down on pre recession levels, there are actually now more cars on Irish roads as people keep vehicles for longer. This he says was creating good aftermarket opportunities but companies needed to be well organised and efficient to capitalise on these. He went on to say that good management and effective training were key to stability and profit, but stressed that it was vital that training programmes were only implemented with clear objectives and that principles learned were actually applied.

Richard went on to demonstrate how better utilisation of workshop staff and increased productivity was absolutely fundamental to running a successful garage. He showed how idle time for a mechanic can cost a business over a Euro per minute and how improvements in efficiency could actually get the hourly rate needed for target profitability levels down and make a business much more competitive in terms of its pricing offer. 

He also demonstrated how headline offers such as the €150 service are profitable and most importantly are also excellent up sell business generators. He concluded that effective training was vital for the development of any aftermarket business and went on to mention various programmes offered by the IMI that can help provide this.

IMI CEO Steve Nash followed up Richard’s presentation by giving an over view of IMI plans for the future, especially in relation to Ireland. Steve, who has been involved in the industry for 36 years, with 26 spent at BMW, outlined the IMI strategy for the 2014-2017 period. This included rationalising IMI accreditation schemes to create common internationally recognised automotive qualifications as well as a significant research programme to show the return on investment that training can provide. He also said that the organisation would be placing added emphasis on its Professional Register and promoting this more widely in Ireland.

Steve stressed that in a currently unregulated automotive aftermarket the IMI had a vital role to play in promoting greater professionalism and in helping businesses that engage with training and accreditation to differentiate themselves from the competition.

The question and answer session that followed saw many people supporting the IMI plans and call on the organisation to establish a stronger presence in the Irish market so as to promote, training, internationally recognised accreditation  and greater professionalism across the industry.