Our Founder – Jim Vais
At age 15 Jim began his panel beating apprenticeship and has never looked back! From 1999 to 2007 he went on to own and operate 10 traditional body shops in the South-Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne.
After constant analysis of his work mix and the industry, Jim started thinking about the S.M.A.R.T concept. He then travelled to Bologna Italy to investigate new gas IR drying technology and was the first to introduce it to the Australian market.
In 2007 Jim began his first S.M.A.R.T pilot site in Berwick Victoria which repaired 50 vehicles a week with 6 staff. This lead to his second site opening at East Bentleigh in 2008 doing 100 repairs a week.
In 2010 he started the joint venture with Suncorp. Capital S.M.A.R.T is now one of the largest Collision Repairers in Australia and New Zealand with 44 sites, over 1100 employees, repairing over 3500 cars a week.