Only three repair centres in Britain have been approved by Jaguar to carry out repairs on its aluminium-bodied XJ-series cars, a newly-appointed bodyshop claims.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Jaguar is the third manufacturer to approve Blue Bell’s Wilmslow facility, after Land Rover and BMW.
The firms says the work is so specialised that cars are being shipped to it for repair from all over the country.
“This also means we will be creating a number of new jobs at the bodyshop,” said director Rob Buckley.
“The capability to repair aluminium is currently so scarce that we have also created a mobile assessment and estimation team who will go to the car, no matter where it is in the north west.
“There are currently only a handful of prestige manufacturers building aluminium-bodied cars, and in some cases even the manufacturers do not have [repair] facilities in Britain.
“It is a highly specialised process – not only do panel beaters need to have very specific training and skills, but the facilities need to be airtight to prevent any contamination of bare metal aluminium by other metals or materials during the repair.”
Buckley said he anticipated “steep growth” in aluminium body repairs as more manufacturers move to using the material.
