Ian Hill, MD of Hills Salvage and Recycling Ltd (Green Parts Specialists) responded to ABP Club’s recent State of the UK Body Repair Industry Report 2020
“It is of no surprise to see an uptake in the use of Green parts in 2020” explains Ian Hill, MD of Hills (Green Parts Specialists), “As a business, we have long advocated the financial and environmental benefits of Green Parts and where repairers have seen their repair volumes and profit margins eroded as a result of COVID 19, our Green Parts Specialist Solution (GPS) has seen a huge rise in requests for quality assured parts”
“It is pleasing to see an increase in work providers advocating Green Parts for use in repair, although the rationale for not fitting recycled parts, blaming quality as a primary reason, is a real concern”
The Green Parts Specialist Platform, acting as a conduit for communication between the specialist sales team at Hills and the repairers, logs all requests, the fulfilment rate, and importantly the return rate, with less than 5% of parts returned due to quality assurance issues, such as the robustness of the solution.
“Delivering parts, next day, nationally, has been a constant focus of 2020”, Ian adds, “and whilst the pandemic has impacted the levels of service for every logistics organisation, we have taken the opportunity to increase of fleet to over 20 vehicles to keep up with the supply of demand”
Investment in I.T and Infrastructure is a theme which will be carried into 2021, with Hills soon to open up their state of the art 90,000 sq ft warehouse and dismantling facility, in addition to their current site. “This will go a long way to ensuring parts availability does not decrease as we are asked to fulfil ever-increasing parts sales” Ian highlighting his vision of providing the largest inventory of on the shelf parts in the UK, increasing their already remarkable 60% fulfilment rate.
Hills and the ‘Green Parts Specialists’ continue to make huge inroads into the insurance and repair industry, recognising the need for quality parts, delivered on time, in the condition that was promised. “Insurers are more proactive towards Green Parts than we have ever seen, total loss avoidance, back order parts and corporate and social responsibility all playing a part in their reasoning, but there is still much more work to be done” advised Ian. “Work provider resistance of 56% is still very high, and as an industry we will work hard to change perceptions and reduce that number, now is the opportunity to provide repairers with an economically viable solution to make money and reduce average repair costs.”
