AUTOMOTIVE
31recyclinginternational.com | May/June | 2020
it as there are only so many places you
can cut costs: you can reduce payroll
or you can buy fewer vehicles to sell
parts off. Unfortunately, in this scenar-
io, you have to make cuts in both
areas. It’s simple maths.’
Robertson wants to avoid going down
to a skeleton crew although, if the
company goes under, there would be
no work for anyone to return to.
‘You’re doing the people a bigger dis-
service not to take bold action,’ he
argues. Daglis agrees, saying ‘at the
end of the day, you’ve got to save the
goose. It’s the goose that lays the
golden egg. You’ve got to keep it well
fed.’ Robertson nods. ‘I will do what-
ever it takes. For instance, I’m going
to cut my own salary for the coming
months. If needed, I’m going to tap
into my retirement savings and invest
them in the company.’
It is a different reality now, acknowl-
edges Chad Counselman, business
development manager at All Auto
Recall. ‘As a minimum, you need to
keep a core crew on-site to handle
likely surges in volume. Also realise
that you can’t reap the benefits of an
economy getting back on its feet if
your crew is too small to handle the
volume. It would be wise to keep a
couple more hands on deck.’
What alleviates the supply bottleneck
for auto parts for Counselman is the
fact that people are not driving as
much. ‘Claims are down by a lot –
70% to 80% on average, I’ve heard.
Even so, original parts are rare and
they will stay rare until production
goes back to normal.’
lockdown: don’t sIt stIll
Peter Butler of Hykia Partsworld in
Auckland, New Zealand is also feeling
the strain on his business with the
country on full lockdown, including a
ban on auctions. ‘The government is
providing emergency funds for the
next six months for any company that
is out 30% – which is basically every-
one,’ he says. The funds total NZ$ 1.5
billion (EUR 800 million) across all
industries. ‘That support will carry us
through the start of this unpredictable
period but it’s unsure how many
weeks we’re talking. For now, this
financial buffer means I can sleep at
night.’
Butler adds, ‘Obviously, we’re buying
zero stock at the moment to beef up
our cash flow. We had about two days
to prepare for the lockdown following
the announcement on 26 March. We
initially planned to participate in an
auction [beforehand] but ultimately
decided against it.’ His main concern
is keeping operations at a minimum
level and ‘not to sit completely still’. ‘I
want to be proactive, to hit the
ground running. Basically, I want to
know when I can get back to work.’
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