As the collision repair industry navigates a period of unprecedented change driven by electrification, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), changing repair methods and workforce shortages, business owners are being asked to wear more hats than ever before.
Few understand that better than Anne McClure, Managing Director of Townsville-based McClure Refinishing. Not only does Anne successfully navigate the demands of the evolving industry as an owner of the business, but she is also an industry advocate, a workwear innovator and a champion for women. She is a Board member of the Australian Collision Industry Alliance (ACIA), the founder of the Vesta Workwear brand that develops PPE for women in the trades, and is an award-winner to boot, having picked up Owner/Manager of the Year at the 2024 Paint & Panel Women in Collision Awards and the MTA Queensland 2025 Women in Industry Award.
She has become an influential voice in Queensland’s collision repair sector – something that would have seemed unlikely just few years ago given that the industry was never really on her professional radar. Rather, Anne’s career path wound through a variety of industries that, at first glance, appear to have no connection to collision repair, but which would eventually become the foundation for her leadership and business approach.
“I kind of fell into working in the automotive industry,” says Anne. “I married a man who was a panel beater and by proxy became part of it!
“I’ve worked in mining, admin and safety, retail, hospitality, and pharmacy for quite a long time – very much areas that I didn’t think would have a lot of input into what I would do in automotive, but actually there are lots of skills that I’ve taken from all of those roles throughout the years and apply to the day-to-day work that we do.”
Anne’s entry into the world of professional collision repair came when the owner of a long-established Townsville collision repair business decided to retire.
Together, Anne and her husband Ben – a panel beater who had worked at the shop for years – saw the opportunity to buy the business and McClure Refinishing officially came under their ownership five years ago.
Immediately, the couple took on the task of modernising the workshop, retaining its focus on restoration work and repair craftsmanship while embracing new technologies, processes and systems. Unlike many high-volume collision centres, McClure Refinishing combines collision repair with custom paintwork and restoration projects.
But stepping into workshop ownership came with an enormous learning curve for Anne. Her past work experiences would prove useful, but a new industry meant new challenges – everything from payroll and staffing management through to insurer relationships and customer expectations.
“One of the biggest professional challenges that I faced was coming into the industry completely green,” says Anne. “. . . coming into owning a shop and having to deal with insurers and that whole process, customers, hire cars, everything that goes on behind the scenes – that was a really big learning curve for me.
“It’s a bit of a trial by fire. You kind of go in and it’s sink or swim. You either do it or it doesn’t happen.”
Fortunately, while collision repair had never been on Anne’s radar as a career option, exposure to it opened her eyes to its potential and the satisfaction that can come from it.
“Working in the automotive industry, collision in particular, wasn’t something I had ever considered,” she says. “I did grow up on a cane farm . . . and I can remember the cars we had from an early age, the old valiant wagons and things, so cars weren’t new to me, but it wasn’t an industry that I ever considered as a career path. But since joining it, I kind of feel like I’ve found where I belong or where I really like to be. I have bounced around a few different industries, but this is the one where it really lights a little bit of a fire in me.”
And so Anne embraced the challenges of taking on the workshop, and her determination, commitment, and past experiences – together with some professional development programs, leadership courses and female-founder initiatives thrown into the mix – helped her to swiftly get a handle on things and start developing the business, and herself.
EMBRACING CHANGE
Like many collision repair business owners, Anne has witnessed enormous technological change in recent years and the rapid growth of electric vehicles, hybrid technology and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have fundamentally altered repair methodologies and processes. Vehicles that were once relatively straightforward to repair now require specialist knowledge, sophisticated equipment and ongoing technical training.
“Even in the five years that I’ve been in the industry, we’ve moved from seeing hybrids and a full EV maybe once a month to now, where every week we’ve got a couple of people coming in with fully electric vehicles. That requires a different skill set, different set of tooling, and a different knowledge base,” says Anne. “We also have ADAS sensors . . . and with those you can’t do traditional repairs in certain areas because that can interfere with the sensors. So that changes the methods we must use, and that means a lot of ongoing training for staff.
While keeping up with emerging vehicle technologies is essential for any modern repair business, Anne believes it also presents an opportunity. The rise of increasingly complex vehicles is not only transforming the collision repair industry, it is transforming perceptions of the industry too and that might go some way to tackling one of the great challenges – the skills shortage. In an industry searching for its next generation of technicians, this high-tech evolution may be exactly what is needed to attract young people looking for a dynamic and rewarding career.
And Anne has spent many hours trying to get this message across. Through career expos and industry events, she has become an active advocate for promoting automotive body repair and refinishing to younger generations and recently became a Board member of the ACIA, an organisation whose mission is to promote collision repair as a rewarding career choice, attract new talent into the industry, and ensure the long-term sustainability of Australia’s collision repair sector.
She believes many students simply do not realise collision repair exists as a career option and this has not been helped, she says, by the removal of automotive body repair and refinishing programs from some training organisations.
“Kids go there to learn about what their trade offerings are, and they might be keen on automotive in general, but they’re not even being offered collision as an option because they’re not offering it at those trade schools.”
However, her experience at career expos over the past 18 months suggests that maybe the tide is starting to turn and she has seen increasing interest from young people, especially when they discover that collision repair encompasses far more than panel and paint work.
Anne has also noticed a growing number of young women expressing interest in the trade, particularly automotive refinishing and custom paintwork, where creativity and technical skill come together.
“We had one particular girl that came up to me who she said, ‘Look, I really love art and I really love cars. I didn’t know that they were something that I could put together,’” she says. “We tend to find that a lot of young women are interested in the trade, particularly in the painting. It does scratch that creative itch.”
For Anne, that conversation reinforced the importance of showing young people that modern collision repair is far removed from outdated stereotypes.
“It’s not just dirty, dusty, and hitting things with a hammer, which is what people think of when they think about collision repair,” she says. “With all the technology that’s around, it’s a great opportunity for people who want to get hands on.
“And we do need to show these young kids that there are options – that they’re not just going to go into the trade and stay there until they’re 60 years old and ready for retirement. They can move up and progress, go from being a tradesperson to an estimator, potentially a shop owner, if that’s what they want to do. You can also go the other route and go into assessing with insurance companies. And then there are other different areas in the industry. So not just regular vehicles but heavy trucks and industrial and even aviation.”
For Anne, the future of collision repair depends on ensuring young people understand that it is not only a viable career, but a dynamic, technology-driven profession with diverse opportunities for growth and advancement and one where they will find support to develop and grow.
And she has been practising what she preaches, building the McClure Refinishing team to be 13-strong, including the workshop’s first female staff member, and becoming Ground Zero for a new venture aimed at making collision repair a more attractive career option for women.
That venture is Vesta Workwear, a project that perfectly captures Anne’s approach to problem-solving as well as her innovative and enterprising thinking.
The company was born from a challenge faced by her own workshop – when McClure Refinishing hired its first female spray-painting apprentice, finding the ideal piece of personal protective equipment (PPE) proved impossible.
“I couldn’t find a suit that fit her,” explains Anne. “She’s quite petite, a little bit smaller of stature, and there was nothing on the on the market. When I went to our suppliers and asked for an option, they all just said to wear a men’s small . . . and when we did get the small options, she was having to tape herself in around the waist, around the arms, and it just really wasn’t the go.
“Coming from working in mining, it kind of beggared belief that there wasn’t a safety gear option for women available, especially since we are really pushing to get more women into the trade . . . If we’re going to go out there and actually say to these women, ‘We want you in this trade’, why are we not backing that with giving them appropriate equipment?”
Rather than accepting ill-fitting men’s PPE as the only option, Anne set out to develop the solution herself – safety equipment designed specifically for female body shapes.
The process began with an industry survey that revealed widespread dissatisfaction with available PPE options. The response was overwhelming.
“100% of women and shop owners who had female staff and who had responded to it, said they were unhappy with the offerings for their female staff,” says Anne.
With feedback from staff, her own experiences and practical understanding of garment construction, Anne drew inspiration from other one-piece outfits and included her own concepts to develop what she would name the Apex spray suit. The suit is innovative enough – it includes an articulated back panel, improved mobility, ventilation and antistatic materials – that Anne currently has a patent pending for the design.
The development process of the Apex suit took approximately 12 months, and Anne officially launched both it and the Vesta Workwear brand in April with a local Townsville event before presenting it to a wider audience at the Collision Repair Expo in Melbourne in May.
The launch has attracted significant attention, but it is the memory of the sale of the first suit that brings a broad smile to Anne’s face.
That order came from a second-year apprentice in South Australia and Anne messaged the buyer to say ‘thanks’ and to let them know that they were the very first customer. She was thrilled with the message she received in reply.
“It said, ‘Thank you for making us feel seen’,” says Anne.
The aim of Vesta Workwear is to provide properly fitting PPE for women working in automotive refinishing and other trades, while helping remove one of the practical barriers that can discourage women from entering or remaining in the industry. Being able to do that, Anne explained in an interview when launching the Vesta brand, is not only the right thing to do for the female members of any team, but the right business decision too.
“I firmly believe that if we can provide the right equipment and tooling, regardless of whether someone is male or female . . . it make’s everyone’s job easier, faster, and more productive. At the end of the day every business end-goal is profit. And if you’ve got staff that are being catered for, looked after, and happy, they’re going to be producing. That’s just Business 101.”
TAKING CHANCES
If there is a common thread running through Anne’s career, it is a willingness to get stuck in, tackle problems head-on and take a punt on herself and her ability to get things done. Growing up on a North Queensland cane farm as one of 11 children meant that hard work and getting on with things was simply a fact of life and these qualities would prove invaluable when she and her husband took over McClure Refinishing, would enable her to commit to the development of Vesta Workwear and also advocate on behalf of the industry and for it to include a more diverse workforce.
Today, encouraging more women to consider careers in collision repair is a passion for Anne, and while she acknowledges that automotive has traditionally been male dominated, she believes the industry is evolving, and doing so quickly.
“There are still mentalities out there that see it as a male space, but that is changing and changing very rapidly,” she says. “We’re seeing a lot more women coming into the industry and doing a bloody good job as well . . . there are those little changes that are kind of happening day by day as we chip away at it that are really kind of making this industry really inclusive for everybody.”
Initiatives such as Auto Women have played an important role in adding some support to this that change. Having entered the industry without an automotive background, Anne says access to advice and mentorship from other women has been invaluable.
“It’s not just a big boys club – we do have a girls club as well,” she says with a smile.
For young women considering a future in collision repair, her advice is simple: give it a try. If you get the chance at school to do some work experience, then do it.
“If you’re thinking, ‘I do enjoy cars, I enjoy being around them,’ then give it a shot because it’s a week where you get to actually be in that shop, a little bit hands on and can find out whether you do like it or not. And that’s what it is at the end of the day – just giving it a shot and seeing what turns up.”
It’s advice that she would give her younger self.
“If I could give advice to my younger self, I would say just take the chance. Just do it,” she says. “That is kind of how I’ve lived my life anyway. But take those risks, because you’re never going to learn if you stay within your comfort zone. You need to push those boundaries to grow, and you never know what you might find and what you might enjoy doing.”
PROJECTS & PASSION
Ask Anne about what cars she loves and what she would own if money were no object, and her answers are firmly tied to family, nostalgia, and a love of the restoration work which is part of her working life.
Her daily driver is a Series II AU Falcon wagon but the pride and joy in the garage is a 1976 TD Cortina wagon that she and her husband restored for their wedding and has played a role in other important family moments too.
“All three of my boys were brought home from hospital in that one, so it holds a special place in my heart,” she says.
And as for her dream car?
“If money was no object, I don’t know if I have a particular car that I would buy … I think I would have a bigger shed and a lot more projects!”
A CAREER WORTH CHASING
As Anne continues to grow both McClure Refinishing and Vesta Workwear while advocating for greater diversity and opportunity across the sector, reflecting on her journey highlights that opportunities exist for those willing to take a chance and embrace something new and that the collision repair industry presents challenges and opportunities aplenty.
“Being a part of this industry has been such a fantastic ride,” she says. “Some days it’s a roller coaster and some days it’s a leisurely Sunday drive. But that’s the fun of it and I have really enjoyed it.”