Sam Street

The collision repair sector is one of the most dynamic and rapidly evolving sectors in the automotive landscape. Far removed from the outdated perceptions that hound many automotive industry sectors, today’s collision repairers operate in a high-tech environment shaped by advanced materials, ADAS-equipped vehicles and increasingly complex repair processes. It is an industry built on precision and innovation, and one which teems with skilled tradespeople, entrepreneurial owners and passionate apprentices.  

For the past 15 years, Sam Street has been beating the drum for the collision repair sector, promoting it and shining a light on the people who work within it through her role as editor of Yaffa Media’s Australasian Paint & Panel magazine. 

During those years, Sam has gone beyond simply reporting on the sector, becoming its passionate advocate. And through her work, the often-overlooked world of collision repair has been given quite a voice, with the stories and achievements of its workforce finding their way onto the pages of the magazine, the Paint & Panel website, other channels and platforms, and through the establishment of industry awards events and even a new advocacy organisation – the Australian Collision Industry Alliance (ACIA). 

In doing all this, Sam has established herself as one of the sector’s most influential and respected figures. 

A CLASSICAL BEGINNING  

Sam’s career journey was anything but planned and she certainly did not set out with dreams of becoming editor of an Australian magazine that focused on the collision repair sector – that would be a strange goal indeed for a young Englishwoman who had been to university to study Classical Civilisation and the wonders of ancient Greece and Rome. 

Emerging from the world of education in the late 1980s, Sam’s first goal was to work in television, a goal that necessitated learning the ropes of being a reporter.  

“In order to be a TV presenter back then you had to be a journalist,” she says. 

However, breaking into journalism proved tricky and she took a punt on writing to a classic car magazine that was advertising for an editor and asking for any available role. 

“I said, I know I can’t be editor but could I be something else?” she says. 

It was something of a cheeky move as, at the time, Sam didn’t even have a driving licence. However, her initiative nonetheless landed her a job at Auto Classic. 

“I was employed as a lowly editorial assistant,” explains Sam. “I was about 23 and I lived in London so there was really good public transport and I didn’t really need to drive a car. But the office was far away, so I got my driving license and, after a while, became completely hooked on classic cars. Because how can you not?” 

It was the role through which she would spark her fascination with cars and which would be the starting point for her automotive journalism journey. 

Although the decision to commit to that path was still some way off, writing about cars was an area of work that kept drawing her in and when Auto Classic closed down, Sam went freelance, doing work for, amongst others, publications aimed at young women and writing automotive-flavoured articles with titles such as ‘Does your motor rev his engine?’ 

This early freelance work did lead to some interesting jobs, including one in which 19 magazine – a very popular publication of the time – sent Sam to Rome for the launch of a new moped. It was jobs like this that made Sam think that, maybe, automotive journalism might be for her. 

Over the next few years she worked for a number of publications in a variety of roles – from writer and reporter to subeditor and then editor – until she landed a monster gig at Ford magazine, a title published by Ford’s UK arm which boasted a colossal circulation figure and, thanks to the financial muscle of its parent, equally muscular funding. 

“. . . Ford magazine went out to 800,000 people and had a budget bigger than Ben-Hur,” says Sam with a chuckle. “We had models for the front cover and it was crazy!” 

It was while working at Ford magazine that an opportunity arose that might have completely changed the course of Sam’s career – an opportunity that could, perhaps, have enabled her to fulfil her early dream of working in television. But more on that later. 

A NEW CHAPTER DOWN UNDER 

By 2005, Sam was married, had a young son and, professionally and personally, things looked rather great. So it was the perfect time to pull up stumps and move to the other side of the world! 

“At the time I moved over to Australia my son was three-and-a-half years old and my husband, who is Australian, wanted to bring his son up in God’s country,” says Sam. “I decided I would give it a go but we didn’t sell our house. I said, ‘I’ll give it five years’.” 

The move to Australia gave Sam the chance to reassess her career and try her hand at something other than automotive journalism. She soon saw the chance to work on a product that offered just that opportunity. 

“I spotted Yaffa Media and decided that, after many years of working in motoring, I was going to do something completely different,” she says. “It was a new chapter in my life and so I applied for possibly the most boring publication on the planet which was called Stationery News. It was about pens and paper, and I probably would have lasted a month!” she says. “They [Yaffa Media] said, ‘Oh no, you don’t want to do that, you want to do Paint and Panel magazine, but I said no, I really don’t want to do it. In the end I said I’d do it for a year and here I am 15 years later, loving it!” 

Encouraging Sam to take on Paint & Panel turned out to be an inspired piece of work from the bosses at Yaffa Media. In the years since taking on the editor’s role she has helped to shepherd the title to become much more than an essential read for those in the collision repair industry. The connections and relationships she has nurtured have led to the growth of existing events and the development of new ones that not only support and promote the industry, but recognise its skilled, hard-grafting and entrepreneurial workforce.      

Chief amongst these is the Bodyshop Awards – an awards event that will celebrate its 30th edition in 2026. 

Celebrating the industry and the ‘innovative bodyshop owners and managers and their outstanding achievements’, the Bodyshop Awards recognises outstanding businesses and individuals across a range of classifications in three categories – Best Shop Awards, Best Practice Awards, and Individual Awards. 

When Sam arrived at Paint & Panel magazine, the awards were a modest affair. Today, it is a true, national event and one with which she is proud to have been involved and help grow.  

“The awards are the industry’s night of nights and people come from all over the country,” says Sam. “. . . It’s just fun, and it’s wonderful for all these different people. 

“The majority of them, the collision repair owners, get to dress up and really enjoy their success and their achievements.” 

They deserve the recognition, she adds. 

“. . . What they do is really important for society, particularly in Australia where we’re so dependent on the car as a mode of transport. If you’re involved in automotive and keeping people on the road, I think that that’s something to be really proud of.”  

The Bodyshop Awards have been joined in recent years by the Women in Collision awards which recognise the contributions of women across a wide range of roles – from technicians and apprentices, to managers, business owners and supplier representatives. 

Establishing those awards was a way to recognise that women were often playing vital roles in the running and success of businesses.  

“We realised very early on that women were often the driving force behind the business,” says Sam with a smile. “While the men peacock around the workshop, the women were actually doing the things that kept the business going – HR, payroll, OH&S – important stuff which isn’t quite as glamorous as wielding a welder or a spray gun.” 

With 56 finalists across eight categories, the latest edition of the Women in Collision awards – held in February at a swanky event in Sydney – was the biggest yet and it is now one of Australia’s leading platforms for recognising women in collision repair. 

The awards are a reflection of both the cultural change and workforce needs within the industry, two factors that were also instrumental in the decision to launch the Auto Women initiative – an initiative that Sam enthusiastically backs as it offers access to support and networking opportunities that are vital for success. 

“Networking is one of the most valuable things you can do whatever you do in life,” she says. “What you know is important, but who you know is important too . . . And the other thing is knowing that you’ve got a mentor or somebody who you can call if you’re feeling uncomfortable about something or you’ve got a difficult decision to make about where you go next. It’s always good to talk these things over with somebody who’s opinion you respect . . . I think it’s a really great initiative.”