Who are Northern Accident Repair?
Northern Accident Repair are an independent bodyshop and repair group operating across 4 sites in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester & Lancashire.
The business is recognised as being one of the most innovative and forward thinking in the vehicle repair sector. Their team of highly skilled technicians are trained on the latest equipment in their modern workshops, ensuring all vehicle body repairs are completed to the highest of standards.
Their repair centres hold a number of manufacturer and insurance approvals and hold the BSI0125 accreditation, and were one of the first repair groups in the UK to commit to the sector specific environmental framework ARIES (Accident Repair Industry Environmental Standard). Being committed to meet the sustainability challenges in the accident repair industry, Northern Accident Repair have embarked on a program to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of their bodyshops starting with their Spraybooth Oven equipment.
The Project
Ian Parkinson, Commercial Director at Northern Accident Repair approached AGM’s Sales Director, Wesley Young, looking for a solution that would reduce both the carbon consumption and energy costs of their spray booths, initially in the Manchester Repair Centre. Ian had spoken with Steve Silverwood from ECA Business Energy who are providing Northern Accident Repair with independent green energy advice and as one of the founder of ARIES, and recommend AGM Services having worked
Starting initially in the Manchester repair centre, they had two Junair Spraybooths, originally manufactured in 2002. These Spraybooths were the right size for future business demands and located in the right position within the bodyshop but were found to be quite energy intensive due to their design at the start of this century where energy costs were a fraction of todays prices and the focus on Net Zero not as prescient as today. Having had a comprehensive service routine for over 20 years the Spraybooths still ran very well but were expensive to run and had high carbon consumption per job, as well as lacking automated features to control any waste through human decisions.
Wesley recommended the installation of AGM’s award winning Optimal Energy Control System to start with on one Spraybooth, but with the addition of the pioneering eMᶾ system, a bespoke energy monitoring system launched by AGM at the start of this year. eMᶾ was also installed onto the second booth but with no changes in the existing specification or performance of that booth to provide a direct comparison of the positive impact of the upgrades both in carbon reduction and cost savings per job.
What is the Optimal Energy Upgrade Pack?
The Optimal Energy range, winner of the 2025 NBRA’s Innovation Awards at their Greener Bodyshop Awards, includes a number of individual upgrade options that can be found on modern / new Spraybooths, that can be retrofitted to existing equipment, powered by AGM’s Optimal Control Panel & PLC, providing an energy makeover for old but perfectly functioning equipment.
Energy saving features include the Optimal Controls with Variable Speed Drives (VSD’s), Automatic Idle Mode, Automatic Re-Circulation on Idle and Flash-Off phases and Auto Stand-By. Additional features available include an auxiliary air movement system to reduces base coat flash-off and paint curing time and makes it possible for baking at lower temperatures, which in conjunction with VSD’s use significantly less energy. LED lighting is another quick and effective upgrade option to reduce energy consumption as well as improve Spraybooth performance by providing much better and consistent lighting within the existing Spraybooth cabin.
These features not only reduce the cost and time involved in each car repair, but also significantly cut carbon emissions, and crucially all features operate automatically eliminating errors or waste from human decisions ensuring the savings on every job.
eM3 – Measure, Monitor & Manage
eM3 Energy Control Systems uses our own bespoke software to log, analyse, and optimise energy consumption for maximum efficiency, cost savings and reduction of carbon emissions. It is fully retrofittable to any make or age of spray booth.
Key features include:
Tracks real-time energy usage and performance through network connected digital gas and electric meters. Data is broken down by fuel type (gas and electricity for example) into each phase of the painting operation such as spray, flash-off, bake, idle and stand-by modes.
Designed to quantify energy use and identify inefficiencies it provides a breakdown of the time in each phase, the ambient air temperature for each job, Spraybooth setpoints chosen by the painter in each phase and costs in £ and consumption in both kWh and CO² instantly.
Reports can be displayed on multiple devices and data exported as reports to review as required giving information as a snapshot or drilled down to the finest detail per job, per day, week, month or year!
PayBack
Saving based just on paint manufacturers process guidelines can see a return on investment in under 3 years, but adding in the unseen waste where spraybooths are running when not required or are operating at temperatures higher than required, an overhaul of investment on old equipment can be recovered as quickly as 12 months depending on the existing specification of equipment.
Comparing a spray booth with no energy saving technology to one with the full Optimal Energy Pack and auxiliary drying system – the savings are between 50-70% and typically this gives an average ROI of 18-24 months for a bodyshop processing 4 jobs through a Spraybooth each day.
Best of all, the eM3 Control System allows this to be further reduced using the data to filter out waste through use at higher than needed temperature in each phase or extended unneeded operating times. eMᶾ can be purchased outright or can be rented over a 24 month period to provide initial assessment of painting habits and performance and removed once the data has been measured or even moved to another site or Spraybooth! The installation process is quick and unintrusive usually needing only 1 – 2 working days of downtime.
What the Customer Said
Ian Parkinson – Commercial Director at Northern Accident Repair – “It’s critical for our bodyshops to run as cost effectively and sustainably as possible. By far the biggest user of energy are our Spraybooths so we’re really pleased to partner with Wesley and his team at AGM Services to give us a clear oversight on our existing carbon footprint, allowing us to work towards significantly reducing it not just at Manchester, but across the whole group. Working in collaboration with Wesley and Steve at ECA, we’re demonstrating that Northern Accident Repair take our environmental impact seriously and are the perfect partner for any work provider wanting low-carbon repairs.
Wesley Young – Sales Director at AGM Services – “Northern Accident Repair are a well established and well run group of bodyshops that I’ve known for most of my time in the accident repair industry. Their Spraybooth equipment is well maintained and functions very reliably, some of it however was purchased at a time when energy or carbon use wasn’t a major consideration, or modern technology wasn’t available. Investing now in overhauling their existing equipment will see them as one of the most sustainable industry repairers, Optimal Controls is a perfect example of investment towards achieving long-term targets under the ARIES framework.”
Steve Silverwood – Managing Director at ECA Business Energy – “ARIES is more than just a checklist, it’s a collaborative response to a global challenge that the accident repair industry needs to face. Ian, Darren, Dale and the team at Northern Accident Repair are leading by example with this investment with AGM Services who we know from experience with other ECA customers provide not only first class Spraybooth service and maintenance, but also lead the industry with carbon and cost saving technology. Combined with our pooled energy basket where we combine volumes on behalf of hundreds of business to negotiate significant costs savings while using the cleanest energy available on the market, Northern Accident Repair are ensuring they use only the energy they require and at the lowest impact to the planet.
Want to Know More?
Whether you want to reduce your costs, need help reducing your carbon footprint or are balancing the costs of upgrading your spray booth versus buying new, we can help provide projections for the savings you could make.
To arrange a free site visit and receive a personalised quotation, please call 01706 363585 or email energy@agm-services.co.uk today.
