A decade in motion: making sense of the market through the eyes of a repairer 

At ARC360 Conference 2025 – held at the British Motor Museum under the banner ‘A New Era – The Changing Dynamics of a Sector’ – the Main Conference Stage welcomed one of the industry’s most grounded and pragmatic voices, Victoria Turner, CEO of the National Accident Repair Group.  

With a presentation that was honest, engaging, and at times wryly humorous, Victoria offered a wide-angle lens on the last six years of upheaval and a grounded forecast for what lies ahead for the UK repair sector. 

As a backdrop, the event was supported by a powerful coalition of sector leaders, including Corporate Partners: BASF, CAPS, Entegral, Enterprise, NWVA, Mirka, S&G Response, Sherwin Williams and Solera Audatex; Partners: e2e and Repairify; and Vehicle Manufacturer Partner: Stellantis; with Event Sponsors: Onyx and Thatcham Research. This high-level industry backing underscored the importance of the shared insights that emerged on the day – including Victoria’s. 

A historical timeline: disruption, demand, and disparity 

Victoria opened with a retrospective, charting the sector’s highs and lows since 2020. Pre-COVID, repairers operated in a volume-based, supply-demand market with standard terms and structured performance expectations. Then came the pandemic, followed closely by Brexit and the Ukraine war, which together catalysed technician shortages, parts delays, supply chain disruption, and economic fragility. 

During the worst of COVID, volumes disappeared overnight. Repair shops furloughed staff, technicians exited the industry, and survival replaced strategy. When work began returning in 2022, it brought a surge in demand but collided with reduced capacity and underinvestment. Repairers faced rising costs and elongated cycle times while navigating an increasingly complex customer and insurer landscape. 

By 2024, many were negotiating rates again – often for the first time in over a decade. There was temporary relief as insurers ‘paid to play’ in order to push claims through clogged pipelines. But as the backlog cleared, it became apparent that volumes had fallen off a cliff – by as much as 20–30% in some regions.  

In 2025, the reality hit: there is now more repair capacity than demand. 

A parallel view of the ecosystem 

Victoria’s view was not limited to the repair lane. She also described dynamics across insurers and the so-called ‘middle lane’ – the world of accident management. 

Insurers, she argued, are constrained in how they can respond. Premium increases have already taken place, but higher excesses have squeezed claim volumes and alienated customers. Insurers are stuck in a hyper-competitive market with demanding policyholders and limited room to move. 

In the ‘middle lane’, accident management companies have evolved to provide critical support – not just to insurers, but to repairers as well. Initially established to manage overflow or lack of in-house capability, they are now crucial partners in coordinating performance, compliance, and ESG objectives across increasingly fragmented operations. 

What went wrong and what could go right? 

Victoria’s narrative moved from reflection to resolution. Her message was clear: the sector cannot keep waiting for a return to ‘normal’. The world has changed. Customer expectations have changed. Technician demographics have changed. The cost and complexity of operating a repair business have changed. The KPIs of the past no longer reflect operational reality. 

“There’s no big lightbulb moment here,” Victoria said. “But if we’re going to move forward, we have to stop pretending it’s 2020.” 

Key takeaways included: 

• You can’t deliver standard KPIs with a non-standard book. If the jobs coming through are increasingly complex, non-drivable, or delayed by parts shortages, then expecting average performance outcomes is unrealistic and counterproductive. 

• Performance does matter – but context is key. Elongated cycle times and high key-to-key figures aren’t always the fault of the repairer. Exceptions must be recognised, not penalised. 

• Leakage and waste must be addressed. When vehicles arrive, repairers must ensure they’re maximising efficiency and minimising unnecessary write-offs. Technicians must be empowered and trusted to determine what is and isn’t repairable. 

Rewriting the rulebook: from KPI pressure to long-term sustainability 

Victoria offered a candid diagnosis of current market conditions. The temptation to apply short-term fixes – such as chasing outdated KPIs or making reactive commercial decisions – may do more harm than good. She called on the entire industry to move past ‘my turn, your turn’ thinking, and instead build a shared understanding of each stakeholder’s constraints and goals. 

She particularly cautioned against what she termed ‘self-harming behaviours’ – well-intentioned efforts that create unintended consequences. For example, enforcing strict key-to-key targets may incentivise repairers to decline complex cases, even if the vehicle could ultimately be saved. Likewise, a rigid approach to total loss matrices may result in perfectly repairable vehicles being written-off simply because the system can’t process exceptions. 

As volumes remain low, and as vehicle technology and regulation continue to add cost and complexity to the repair process, Victoria made the case for realigning expectations, incentives, and data usage across the board. 

A future built on support, visibility, and collaboration 

Victoria’s roadmap for moving forward included tangible steps across all layers of the value chain: 

• Insurers should reconsider how they define and measure performance, factoring in exceptions, and recognising the non-linear nature of modern repair processes. 

• Accident management companies must remain flexible and agile – providing not just workflow distribution, but also training, support, and ESG oversight. 

• Repairers must audit their operations for inefficiencies, invest in systems that improve data visibility, and revisit their business models to ensure long-term sustainability. 

She stressed the importance of communication and trust – ensuring that insurers, repairers, and intermediaries work together, not in silos. Stakeholders need to understand not just their own economics, but each other’s pain points. “There’s only so much money that comes in at the top,” Victoria reminded attendees. “And it has to be shared all the way down.” 

Her closing message was one of realism – but also resilience. The last six years have taught the sector how to survive. The next phase, she argued, is about learning how to thrive – together.