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Business Plan Africa Investor-Ready Plans

Precision Coachworks Business Plan

Investor-ready panel shop business plan: R17.30m deployed, SAMBRA-accredited structural repairer, 838 vehicles a year and R29.31m Year 5 revenue.

Precision Coachworks SA — a repaired vehicle finished to manufacturer standard in an accredited body shop
Business Plan & Investment Proposal · South Africa

Panel Beating & Spray Painting Business Plan — South Africa

Precision Coachworks SA (Pty) Ltd · Manage The Days, Not The Rate.

A SAMBRA-accredited structural motor body repairer on an industrial node in a metro with high
insured-vehicle density — panel beating and spray painting for insurer panels, manufacturer warranty work and
fleet. Two spray booths and 38 floor positions at maturity, repairing about 838 vehicles a year at an average repair
value near R35,000. R17.30 million of capital: R12.10 million equity and R5.20 million of asset finance
at 13.25 per cent with a three-year capital moratorium.

R17.30mCapital deployed
838Vehicles a year
R29.31mYear 5 revenue
9 daysKey-to-key cycle

Read the executive summary →

A panel shop cannot price its way to profit. Insurer panels set the labour and paint
rates, and this plan is honest enough to show the consequence on its own face: gross margin is 39.5 per cent in
Year 1 and 39.5 per cent in Year 5, unchanged in every year between. What the shop does control is
time. A vehicle occupies a floor position for as long as the repair takes, so throughput is capacity divided by cycle
time — and Precision Coachworks cuts key-to-key from 14.0 days to 9.0 while building from 16 floor positions
to 38. That combination takes it from 134 vehicles a year to 838. The plan’s own title says it plainly: manage the
days, not the rate. The cost of the ramp is stated with the same candour — EBITDA is negative in Years 1 and 2 and
profit after tax until Year 4.

The plan at a glance

Six measures that determine whether this body shop and its funding stand up.

R17.30mCapital deployed over five yearsR12.10m promoter and investor equity plus R5.20m asset finance at 13.25% with a three-year capital moratorium.
14 → 9 daysKey-to-key cycle timeThe single lever in the business. Cutting it from 13 to 9 days adds 258 vehicles a year through the same floor.
39.5%Gross margin, fixed throughoutIdentical in every year of the projection. Insurer rates are set by the panel, not the shop — so margin is not a lever.
2 / 38Spray booths and floor positionsFrom one booth and 16 positions. Capacity is the numerator; cycle time is the denominator.
838Vehicles a year at maturityAt an average repair value near R35,000, against 134 in Year 1.
2.75xYear 5 debt service coverNot meaningful in Years 1 and 2 — which is exactly what the three-year capital moratorium exists to bridge.

The one variable the shop owns

What the insurer fixes against what management controls — and why only one of the two can move.

The rateWhat the shop cannot changeGross margin sits at 39.5% in every single year of the projection. Insurer panels set the rates, and no amount of negotiation moves that line.
so manage
The daysWhat it canKey-to-key from 14.0 days to 9.0. Every day removed releases floor positions that were already paid for — 258 extra vehicles a year from 13 days to 9.

Five years of trading

Revenue and EBITDA on the base case. Cycle time and utilisation are the two assumptions that matter most, and both are stressed in Section 12.

Revenue build — vehicles a year against key-to-key days

Throughput is capacity divided by cycle time. Floor positions rise from 16 to 38, but cutting key-to-key from 14.0 days to 9.0 is what takes the shop from 134 vehicles a year to 838.

Year 1

R4.80m · 134 vehicles · 14.0 days

Year 2

R9.53m · 270 · 12.0

Year 3

R18.35m · 523 · 10.5
Year 4

R25.05m · 715 · 9.5
Year 5

R29.31m · 838 · 9.0

EBITDA and margin, Year 3 onward

Years 1 and 2 run EBITDA deficits of R1.78m and R0.50m. Gross margin is fixed at 39.5% throughout — the shop cannot price its way out, so every rand of improvement comes from volume through the same floor.

Year 3

R0.95m · 5.2%

Year 4

R2.92m · 11.6%
Year 5

R4.10m · 14.0%

Why this plan works the way it does

1
Manage the days, not the rateGross margin is 39.5% in every year of the plan because insurer panels set the rates. The only variable the shop owns is how long a vehicle occupies a floor position — and cutting key-to-key from 13 days to 9 adds 258 vehicles a year.
2
Throughput is capacity divided by cycle timeFloor positions rise from 16 to 38 and booths from one to two, but capacity alone does not produce vehicles. The same floor delivers 134 repairs at 14 days and 838 at nine.
3
Accreditation is what lets the work arriveSAMBRA grading and manufacturer structural approvals are what put a shop on an insurer panel at all. They are slow and costly to obtain, which is also what protects the position once held.
4
Parts are half the revenue and little of the marginParts run at R15.24m of Year 5 revenue against R9.38m of labour. They pass through the business to support the repair; the labour and paint lines are where the shop actually earns.
5
Two loss years, structurally fundedEBITDA is negative in Years 1 and 2 and profit after tax until Year 4. The three-year capital moratorium on the asset finance is sized around exactly that ramp.

Financial snapshot

Four charts from the plan. The full set of twenty-four appears throughout the sections below.

Floor positions and cycle time
Figure 7. Floor positions and cycle time.
Year 5 EBITDA against key-to-key cycle time
Figure 8. Year 5 EBITDA against key-to-key cycle time.
Where the binding constraint changes
Figure 9. Where the binding constraint changes.
Vehicles repaired and average repair value
Figure 11. Vehicles repaired and average repair value.

Contents

Seventeen sections and five appendices. Every page carries full navigation, a section outline and links to the sections either side of it.


!
Important Notice and Basis of PreparationBasis of preparation, data sources and forward-looking statement caveats. Please read first.

Appendices
Confidential. This document is provided for the purpose of evaluating an
investment in Precision Coachworks SA (Pty) Ltd and may not be reproduced or distributed without written consent. Projections are
forward-looking statements based on the assumptions registered in Section 16 and are not guarantees of future
performance.