Victoria, British Columbia – CARSTAR Canada continued its 30th anniversary celebration in Victoria, BC at the 2024 CARSTAR Conference: Velocity! Day Two was filled with leadership and partner presentations, along with a Restore the Star panel.
“Today’s presentations and breakout sessions focus on how we and our partners can provide our franchise network the tools they need for profitability and success,” said Sabrina Thring, President, Driven Brands Collision.
More than 500 attendees heard from members of the corporate leadership team, franchise partners and vendors on how best to meet a wide scope of challenges with maximum velocity and growth together. The profitability theme was a key theme running through the morning panel which carried yesterday’s keynote speech from Michael Macaluso about the goal of “Restoring the Star”.
The general sessions featuring the CARSTAR leadership team of Thring and Dave Foster, SVP, Operations and Development, were followed by a presentation on marketing initiatives by Melissa Kwiatkowski, VP, Marketing. Franchise partners in the Restore the Star group then gathered on stage for a panel discussion on winning strategies.
Ryan Mandell, Director of Claims Performance Auto Physical Damage Solutions at Mitchell International discussed industry trends and the needs of the shop of the future. Mandell says there are three main items shops need to focus on for current and future success. The first was the impact of total losses which have stabilized over the past year. He said as they decline there will probably be higher frequency.
“Complexity is driving opportunity and challenges,” according to Mandell. “An increasing need for calibration coupled with vehicle construction changes and parts and labour inflation will push costs higher.”
EV adoption will continue and according to Mandell shops must make a decision to get fully involved or not.
The afternoon included a variety of breakout sessions set to provide in-depth information on initiatives and opportunities for CARSTAR Canada franchise partners in the year ahead, including presentations by OEConnection, CCC and Repair Logic on OE Certifications; CARSTAR Store Advisory Council presentation; as well as an EV deep dive from Tesla.
Collision Repair is on the scene to capture all the action. Check out exclusive photos of the event as it occurs.
