Big Bodies (Pty) Ltd

-Big Bodies (Pty) Ltd - founded in December 2005 with the objective of setting up and operating a comprehensive "one-stop-shop" facility in the Western Cape for the repair of accident and operating damage in the Heavy Vehicle market.

-We operate as a specialist repairer, catering for every possible type of damage to all categories of heavy commercial vehicles such as trucks, trailers, busses, earth moving equipment, agricultural machinery, mobile cranes, etc.

-To achieve this goal we first visited various comparable workshops in South
Africa, Italy and Sweden as part of our extensive research into workshop layout,
equipment set, workflow and operational procedures.

-Once we had agreed on a definitive blueprint we set up our brand new facility
in Epping 2, Cape Town and equipped it in accordance with the determined
specifications. The equipment set is comprehensive, state of the art and
imported largely from Sweden and Italy.

SCOPE OF WORK
- All accident damage repairs to components such as;
• Driver cabins
• Bus bodies and bus interiors
• Heavy vehicle chassis
• Vehicle and trailer axles
• Load bodies
• Crane booms on mobile cranes

-We are an accredited and registered vehicle body builder and as such we undertake fully legal, certificated (as per the homologation process) conversations of vehicle bodies as well as the fitting of tag axles in compliance with the National Road Traffic Act.

-Non-accident related repair work resulting from normal wear-and-tear brought about from day to day operations. This includes items such as;
• Straightening and laser alignment of vehicle and trailer chassis as well
as of vehicle and trailer axles.
• Determining and redressing wear and tear on wheel suspension, bushes and steering linkages.
• Wheel alignment.
• Straightening of all steel structural components of heavy equipment such as graders and front-end loaders (i.e. virtually any heavy-duty steel component)
• Total refurbishment of all category mid-range to heavy vehicles belonging to clients
• Refurbishment and resale of all vehicles acquired by Big Bodies.

We wish to point out that whereas our focus is on the heavier section of the commercial vehicle spectrum we are fully equipped and structured to also undertake the same range of repairs to any mid- and medium-sized vehicles (such as Sprinters and light trucks) and are therefore positioned to provide a complete one-stop-solution to fleet owners or individual operators.

THE ROLE PLAYERS
The business is currently owned and managed by two partners, namely Ahron Gropper and Theo von Solms. We have both been actively involved in the autobody repair industry for many years,as individual workshop owners, as past members of the regional executive of SAMBRA (the autobody repair industry association) and as serving executive directors of the STi Autobody Repairers Group (a franchise group operating in the autobody repair industry.)

BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
•The founding members of the company fully subscribe to the concept of Black Economic Empowerment and as such it was decided that every effort be made to bring in a BEE partner from inception.
•This decision was not only prompted by the desire to ensure compliance with legislation but more so because it makes economic sense. The transport and trucking industries are both major employers of, and service suppliers to, black people. The transport sector was one of the first industries to empower black employees by making it possible for truck drivers to become owners of the vehicles they drive. As these individuals grow in economic stature they will form a strong economic force and it is our belief that it will only be natural for them to prefer to deal with empowered companies.
•We have been actively canvassing to find a BEE partner (or partners) to take up equity up to 30% in the company. We have not set any restrictions in terms of the nature of how this BEE shareholding should be made up and the shareholding could therefore be held by a single individual, a number of individuals or a group of individuals who combine in some formal structure (such as a trust) or a corporation. Unfortunately, to date, we have not yet been able to procure a
partner (or partners) but we are pursuing this objective relentlessly.
•We are however, concurrent to our search for BEE partners, also participating in the STi group initiative of obtaining the highest possible grading in terms of Broad Based Empowerment for both the Group and each individual franchisee. We see this as a positive interim step on the road to our empowerment goal.

www.bigbodies.co.za