Marshall Motor Group is extending its chosen paint and materials supply partner agreement with LKQ Coatings.

LKQ Coatings will continue to develop its Intelligent repair programme across the dealer group, supported by its Optima Smart product range, meeting all of Marshall Motor Group's requirements.

The programme aims to ensure the repairer can estimate and carry out a quality repair while ensuring key to key times are kept to a minimum.

The process is designed to maximise the cost benefit to the insurer and provide a fast turnaround to deliver customer satisfaction.

LKQ Coatings bodyshop management programme will provide training and development for Marshall Motor Group's bodyshop managers to enhance their skills and control all diciplines within the operation.

Michael Hunt, head of aftersales development at Marshall Motor Group, says: "We are confident that the LKQ Coatings business model will continue to align with our growth strategy and that by extending our supply partnership we will keep moving forwardin the same direction to the mutual benefit of both companies."

Richard Steer, managing director of LKQ Coatings, added: "The trust in our added-value programmes and the mutual respect between our two companies is testament to the open and mature relationship that has developed over the past several years.

"For an initial outlay of around £4,000-£5000 in equipment and training, bodyshops are able to identify, upsell and isolate retail work more easily. They can generate additional jobs of between £50 and £200 a time."

Using the new web-based LKQ Coatings Intelligen Repair model, the company conducts a gap analysis of where the business is today and how it could be more successful in the future.

This examines areas including existing work mix, the size of  the workshop, the skills set available, the equipment and the products the bodyshop has invested in and how effective the business has been to date.

It then determines the potential of that business by identifying how the bodyshop  has the opportunity to grow by investing in people, equipment, additional capacity and throughput, and how the work required to fulfil the extra capacity could be generated through local marketing and promotion.

The Intelligent Repair profit calculator works out how much profit a bodyshop can generate and the payback period of its investment by calculating smart repair damage and the price of the job versus the wet and dry goods and labour expended.

Steer added: "As repairers become more aware of and familiar with the smart products on the market, they can turn around repairs within half a day to a day. By segregating repairs they can use infra-red lamps, rapid dry paint and smaller spray guns and sanders, minimising the amount of time a job is required in the oven and reducing energy consumption by as much as 35%."